


Darklight

by Kryodragon



Series: Children of Time [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Blind Character, Blindness, Dimension Travel, Gen, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-17 23:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20629337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kryodragon/pseuds/Kryodragon
Summary: The 12th Doctor follows a strange signature through the time vortex, landing in another alternate universe again. Now he must explore what brought him there and how he'll get back to his own. Along the way he'll find himself making an unexpected ally or two that may set or change the course of his future forever. This is an AU between tale of 12 adventures, post Husbands of River Song and pre Mysterio episode.





	1. Things of Nightmares

The sun passed over the horizon, leaving only a faint blue and purple hue on its skyline. The only sound that could be heard was that of the wind rustling through the trees. Traffic, if any, was very limited at this particular hour. The weather made for an early night inside for most people, the chill of disappearing winter still clinging to the air. However, that was not the case for everybody, some people were out until well after dark fell.

Normally this wasn't a bad thing, a person could go about their evening just fine without consequence, but for some, that just wasn't the case. Just like on this strange ominous sort of night, as the moon rose bloated in the deep blues, one such individual was walking along. Headphones in, their world outside aside from vaguely paying attention to where they were walking, was drowned out by the sounds of some sort of dubstep rhythm.

Where they were going was with purpose, but not so fast that they had to be in a hurry to their destination. So, naturally they passed each block with ease on their way to where they were going. Little did they realize that their world was about to be interrupted of course by something beyond their control. Suddenly they were brushed up against by someone. The person with the headphones, which come to find out was a lankly youthful adult male, came out of his revere by being startled a bit of course, long enough to realize that the other person that had accidently bumped into them and had walked on.

While still walking, they turned their gaze back towards their encounter, lifting an ear piece off their ear to only be met with a female voice saying a short sorry as they walked the opposing direction than them. In the end the person with the headphones didn't see much cause to fret over it, so he shrugged and continued on, letting the ear piece fall back on their ear.

Some time, and a few blocks later, the man found himself walking into a bar. Of course that in and of itself was nothing unusual, and one would probably be starting to think that is was going to just another normal hanging out with friends sort of night. For the most part this would be correct, however, what sort of tale with this be if it just were that simple. Of course, a few hours did pass by, and the man who had gone in had spent that time relaxing with people he knew that were there.

It wasn't until a few drinks and a couple karaoke songs after, that things started to take a stranger turn. Unbeknown to the man who had, had the music earlier while walking, was that the girl he had passed by. She had come into the joint herself. She had completely bee lined him out and had even gone directly up to him with purpose.

"You dropped this." the girl said with a sweet tone to her voice, holding out a phone to the man.

"Oh, um, thanks." he stated back, taking the phone, confused as to how he had lost it in the first place. He then looked at her strangely when she didn't walk away. "Is there something else?"

"Sorry." the girl stated shaking her head a bit. "It's just, you remind me of someone."

"Oh, well is that a good thing or a bad thing." the man mused with a small smile.

"Good." she smiled back awkwardly. "It was nice meeting you."

"Meh, why don't you come and sit down with us for a few," he flirted a bit noting more now that she was actually kind of pretty. "Rest yourself after having to come back all this way just to drop off a phone to me."

"Alright." she said warmly, and sat down with him and his friends, her long hair falling over her should. His friends said hello to her and began chattering again amongst themselves.

He hadn't thought to question how the girl even knew he had gone to that particular place. Then again most wouldn't think about it, brushing off as unusual as coincidence. In fact, they continued to casually talk afterwards for some time. By the end of the night, the man had passed from being coherent, to slightly not in short order. His friends had even left him after a couple hours of the girl being there, leaving the two of them to talk until closing.

She had obviously won the man's heart by a land slide, partially because he wasn't coherent enough to make logical decisions. When they got finally outside, he was tipsy enough to ask her to walk with him a bit. Of course she obliged and even took his arm in her own as they began to walk down the now nearly empty street. Talking some more, him more vibrantly than her, they managed to make their way as far as where the lights no longer touched the busiest parts of the business district of the downtown area.

It was then that she suddenly jerked him off the main path and into a secluded alley where there was no signs of life at all. The young man didn't even know what was happening. At first he thought all she wanted was to make out or something by the way she grabbed him and kissed him on the lips passionately. However, it was from that sudden change of pace from talking to randomly kissing, that the man had met his match and made the last mistake he ever would.

Why, because the moment she had gotten that close, was the moment he had been able to look straight into the eyes of the girl he had been caught off guard by. At first he had thought how pretty her eyes were, but then, after only a few moments, he saw something else in those eyes. Instead of seeing the depths of color and dark pupils, he saw himself, his face, inside those round orbs. It wasn't just any face either, it was one that was left in a silent scream for help. His own eyes going momentarily wide with fright and life, before they went pale and dull along with his complexion as if ever ounce of his being was drained from him.


	2. A Different View

Serena woke with a jolt, sweat beading down her face as she breathed in and out hard while she laid there, her head re planted onto the pillow behind her. It had all been just a bad nightmare. She was safe and warm inside her own bed, yet the cold feeling that clung to her skin still didn't alleviate the fact that it had felt so real.

She gave a sigh of relief though, letting the tension and the dream slip away like a discarded vale. Her heart, which had sped up in pace, began to slow down again. Closing her eyes momentarily it allowed her to gain her composure before turning onto her side to check the time via her phone. It was only six a.m. as far as her blurry eyes could tell, and she didn't have to be anywhere until at least ten.

Frustrated, she laid the phone back down, face down onto the mattress and rolled back onto her back to try and get back to sleep for at least another hour. She could take a cab if she had to, was the thought she mused. However, after only twenty minutes of just lying there staring up into the dark nothing, she finally decided to get up, having found going back to sleep just to be a fruitless endeavor. Her brain was already ten steps ahead of her body.

Flourishing the covers off with an irritable yank, she turned her body so she could sit up and get off the comfy respite that was her bed. Still weary faced and blurry eyed, she made her way to start the rest of the day. Of course her vision was so bad at the moment she practically stumbled through the dark room just to get to the door. Why she hadn't put a lamp and stand right next to her bed, she didn't know. Though, now that her grumpy mind was thinking about it, she was half way considering it even though it probably would blind her more just turning it on in the mornings.

Finally she made it to the door and opened it, leaving a dark hallway to loom in front of her. Because her mind was still fuzzy, it almost made her jump scare a bit when she saw a shadow that looked out of place just ever so slightly or so she thought. This encouraged her to try and quickly make her way to the bathroom to turn on a light and shut the door at the same time. Once inside she leaned momentarily against the door itself to try and get her nerves to settle.

_It's all just in your head. Stop thinking about it,_ was the thought she tried to convince herself with to re calm herself down. Staring at herself in the mirror, which in her case was not as quite an easy task as one would think, she tried to gauge what sort of day this day was going to bring. Squinting a bit at her image to try and see it more clearly, she could tell that it was going to be one of those days, emphasis on those, which meant probably would turn up bad somehow. Just what she needed, a bad day on top of a bad night's sleep. Clearly she was batting zero at this point. 

Walking up to the sink she turned it on and began to cleanse her face and hands. The warm water rolling down her face from a wet wash cloth she had grabbed had felt good on her forehead, eyes, and cheeks; but alas it did nothing for her visual acuity though most days she'd hope it would. No her vision was permanently stuck in a state of slight blur, as well as near sightedness. She could barely see more than twenty to thirty feet in front of her most days, with most things at least halfway decently defined, but what she could see allowed her to get around still quite nicely.

Granted, the lenses she'd put in after washing her face would help with some of that problem, but it still never gave her the acuity she needed to do some things most average humans could do. Luckily she was resourceful and could manage her way around that issue for the most part. There were just some days, like this one, where things were tougher than others.

After putting her contacts in, Serena blinked rapidly a few times at her still disheveled features, her now blue eyes staring back at her. Sadly she could not see the color unless she got really close to the mirror, but at least the sharpness was now there and that was what mattered. She didn't see the world as if swimming in the ocean with one's eyes open. Satisfied with at least that, she managed to work her way into brushing her hair, getting dressed, and eventually getting around to getting food from the kitchen.

By that point it had become eight in the morning. If she wanted to get to where she needed to be by ten, she was going to have to either leave on the go with her food, or just wait and cab it there. One was cheaper, but the other allowed for her to take more time. After checking her funds in a jar she kept for such things, she realized she had enough for a cab only or enough for a bus and maybe a lunch at her location later. Bus it was. So she made a quick bagel as best she could, grabbed her jacket, backpack, and her specialty cane just for people with vision loss like hers, and darted out the door to try and reach the bus just in time.

She had just barely made it with a few minutes to spare. Enough for her to catch her breath before having to board the bus. The moment the bus came and she was on, had paid the bus fare, she had made her way to find a seat. Cane still out to indicate her status she let what vision she did have note right away that the front seats were all taken. Unfortunately she could tell that they were all occupied. As far as she was concerned, by the way they were stare at her, she strongly assumed they were all able bodied lazy loafs, folks that clearly were not going to budge for her whether they could tell she needed the seat or not. Again it was going to be one of those days.

Not wanting to bother to tell any of the blank faced people sitting there in the kindest way possible to shove off, only because she felt a tad self-conscious, to let her sit in a spot purposefully designated for people with a disability, she instead just huffed an irritated sigh and tried to manage her way back to the back of the bus, casually whacking a few folks on either side with her cane, the same motion used to gauge her surroundings, however, in her case a way also to get a silent revenge on the jerks just sitting there like mindless sheep. Sadly as she reached the stairs that led to the second level the driver started to take off before she could sit down somewhere. She even almost stumbled and fell on her face as she clambered up the stairs to the second level.

Frazzled, Serena finally found a seat to plant herself in. It was moments like this that drowning out the world was for the best. Plugging in headphones to her phone she opened up the YouTube app on the screen after unlocking it, picked a song, and put the headphones on to blare away the stupid people, as she saw the situation as it was right at the moment because she was irritated, away. Music to her was like her life track, it pushed her through and past all the bull that she had to deal with on a constant basis. She was strong, she had to be and she knew it.

The ride to her destination from home was luckily a short one. Sadly it had left her to personally pay attention and guess as to when and where her stop would come up. Fortunately this route was one she took almost daily. So knowing the stop was a lot easier than if she hadn't been to a place before. The moment she reached the block of the stop itself, she pulled the line and began to stand before the bus even had stopped. Drivers in her town were not always keen on waiting for anyone, not even someone like herself unless rider was bound to a chair and then it was part of the driver's responsibility to help them get off. Otherwise, one was on their own.

Lurching forward as the bus came to a sharp halt, she vaulted herself forward towards the stairs, holding onto the railings that jutted up to the ceiling for support so she wouldn't go flying down them. Quickly she tried not to fumble down the stairs as she made her way to the back door and out it before the driver could start up the bus again and take off down the street.

Music still playing, she readjusted her bag on her shoulders and began to walk to the building yards away in front of her with purpose. She would have crossed the grass out of convenience instead of wandering around via the sidewalk, which took longer, but canes like hers were never good in grass. Hers had a rolling tip so it wasn't as much a bother, but instead she took the sidewalk just in case to make sure something else couldn't go wrong. Its white reflective surface swayed back and forth as it found its target to either side of her, trailing the grass instead as she took the long route to get to the main doors.

She honestly hated using the damn thing. She'd been raised up without one. It had only been more recently now that she was on her own and her sight was diminishing, that she he had, had to use a cane more often. In some causes though if she was feeling quite trite or self-conscious about it, she'd leave it at home so as not to share with the world that she was the way she was. This was the same case when she got just passed the parking lot. She began to fold it up. Familiar grounds meant she could much more easily navigate without the cumbersome object in hand.

The moment she reached the front door, she finished folding the cane and opened door just like any other student would and strolled inside like there was not a thing wrong with her at all. She was a college undergrad trying to make it in a competitive world. As she wandered through the main lobby, folks said hello to her. Some she could recognize right off the bat, others not so much, but none of them what one would call "close friends". She was on her way to her first class of the day. Monday's were notorious for the eye rolling, mind numbing, vocal groaning hard subjects like math, science, and or history. Sure there were some other classes littered in between as well, but all the same, the major classes on a Monday were usually the most complicated.

Yet she supposed she'd rather have a Monday annoyance than the same sort of classes on a Friday. That would have just ruin ones weekend. Finally though she made her way into the first classroom to await her doom for the next two or so hours. Others walked in right after her, but she paid no mind to them at this point. She was more focus on getting her small space ready. Serena got her things out that she'd need for class and then waited, her headphones and smartphone full of music now put away. Of course once class began, things would started turning into a better day hopefully.

Lecture was long and boring. It was hard to keep up with the professors ramblings and the stuff wrote on the board. To be honest, she didn't even pay attention to the board because she couldn't see it. So instead she'd wait for after class for the hopes that the instructor would have secondary notes she could gather if at all. Sadly the professor did not this day and it left her in a tad bit of a slump. Thankfully she had the memory of an elephant so to say, since an elephant quote unquote never forgets.

By noon after class was over, and she was able to rest her eyes a little, her day had gone from a miserable start to things were looking just a bit more up. Well aside from mounds of homework and lack of notes of course. She had gotten the lunch she wouldn't have been able to get if she had cabbed her way there, and had even had time to sit down and enjoy it before the next class started. She had three this particular day.

While eating the sandwich she'd bough along with a juice drink, she had tuned into watching slash listening to something on her phone. This always seemed to be quite the routine for her most days. Not that it was a bad thing. The time to herself just gave her more of a chance to decompress from a stressful class session, which for her was a good thing. It wasn't like she went out of her way to sit by herself, just no one usually was there that she did know when she was or they just didn't think about sitting with her, try as hard as she might to fit in.

Eventually lunch break was over and she had gone back to her routine of classes again until about four in the afternoon, which was when her third class got over. Again just another normal routine to her day. Of course Serena knew the looming of the return home on the bus was approaching, but she at least realized that was going to be an on the way home trip rather than an on the way out one. It meant she'd be going home and not have to deal with any more antics for the day.

The sheer moment the day was over, she had bolted off out the school campus' front door, pulling back out the cane she had, had earlier that day just long enough to deal with public transportation itself. She still really did not like carrying the thing even though she really needed it. It was like a big red flag saying hey I'm different, strange, weird, or whatever else she could think of. She was the only one at the stop too at least on the side she was looking to go.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem for her, being alone that was, she could easily hear the bus coming and flag it down. However, that feeling of it was going to be one of those sorts of days gut hunches came rolling back into her stomach when she did hear the bus approach. Like usual she walked out to signal down the driver, but either she had misinterpreted the stop, or the driver was being just one of those sorts of drivers. They completely passed her and kept right on going. Her ears even picking up the faintest chance that the driver actually sped up just out of sheer spite to get as far away from her as quick as possible.

"Jerk." She muttered bitterly to herself. Why did she have to live in such a miserable town again? This was the thought in her mind. Oh right, because she couldn't afford to live anywhere else. The town itself wasn't really all that bad, at least not as bad as she believed it to be, in the emotional state she was in right now. it was decent sized, not the greatest of course being something out in the middle of the brown prairie lands of a state that some people believed still rode horse and buggy in, but it at least had more than a one stop light intersection. It was just small enough to have community but large enough that you could easily be forgotten.

She was going to have to walk home at this rate seeing as that same driver was going to be probably on for at least another few hours she was certain. Which meant she wouldn't probably get picked up at all because the driver was being a royal insert colorful metaphor here type of individual. With a sigh, Serena shouldered her backpack and began to walk with her cane still out. It was going to be quite a trek from the college to where she lived a few miles away. Each mile could take her between a half hour to an hour or so.

Her mood had been so bruised. She normally could listen to music while walking, but today was just not one of those days. Besides her phone would have been dead before she got there. Instead she let the sounds of the city fill her ears. The real heartbeat of the universe. It some ways it was soothing, in others it was strange and kind of awkward. The only tones being that of car wheels rolling by in the distance and of course the wind whipping through still dead trees and grass.

Of course she could also hear her cane rolling along the ground in a gliding whoosh sort of fashion, she was going to need that sound with how cruddy her vision was being today. She had decided to stay off the main avenue through town, a three lane that went both directions making it a total of six hectic lanes. Less traffic made for easier audio cues to cross with. However, going the back residential roads meant for easier targeting by trouble makers, and for a girl walking alone, impaired in vison or not, that was a bad thing.

Sadly she got turned around a bit while figuring out her way home, finding herself going down a street she wasn't quite as familiar with as most. It was starting to fade in daylight too, the sun still starting to set around six p.m. or so. The bus that had passed her earlier had not helped what so ever. Sadly, unable to see as far ahead of herself as she would like to have, she began to feel uneasy again. Her dream creeping back into her mind once more. It had still felt so real, but why? Thinking about it made her pick up her pace anyway to try and reach home faster. Unfortunately it made her trip up more just trying to reach her safe haven.

Luckily she had some great skill at keeping balance mostly when she wanted to, even if she found herself connecting a foot or two on a gigantic crack in the sidewalk as she sped along. She could have face planted and still kept going, damning whatever consequences may have come. What really sucked was she almost got hit by a car because of how fast she was trying to get home and the fact the driver had not stopped to let her pass. She swore under her breathe at that, wondering if the person was not paying attention or was just rude.

She inevitably found herself completely lost and had to stop for a few moments. Serena had to get her bearings. Yet the moment she stopped moving she felt more like almost breaking down. Biting her lower lip lightly to try and stop a flood of emotion from welling up inside her she frantically looked around. She had no idea where she had ended up and it frightened her.

Serena knew though no one was going to help her, she was all alone, so she had to gather in what her surroundings were. Even as the dark was starting to settle in. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and calm herself down, letting her ears do all the searching for her. If she could maybe hear the sounds of the main avenue, she could figure out how to get back there maybe. Sadly the sounds of the cars in the distance were all the same. The rest of the sound was all wind blowing through the tress.

That was not helpful at all. She stood there trying to think. She couldn't afford a cab, there were no buses now. There had to be some way she could get home. Just as she was trying to figure that out a sudden pressure change happened and the wind began to pick up in a slightly different direction. It forced her to have to close her eyes again to keep flying dirt from the street to billow up into them and make it so she really couldn't see. It was while she was doing this that she began to hear another sound, one that sort of sounded like a flag scrapping and beating against a metal pole a bit, but a tad more distorted than that, and maybe just a little too rhythmical. What did she know though, for all she knew the wind could have been fluttering a flag somewhere and in rhythm.

If that was the case though, she might actually know where she had gone wrong and got lost. Parks had flags and she'd been plenty of times to a park before. Turning with a swell of hope inside. She started her way in search of the sound as it seemed to get louder and louder until finally she did stumble out onto a street corner where ironically park ended up lying. The sound had stopped of course, but now at least she was able to find her bearings much better.

It wasn't safe to pass through the park, but she at least was able to wander around its border to its other side. Seeing something familiar in the darkness, she was able to get back onto the right street and continue the rest of the trek home, the sound that had saved her now only a stored memory in the back of her mind.


	3. An Unexpected Visitor

Eventually Serena made it home in one piece even though the whole entire time she felt watched or followed whether she was or not. Her heart could be heard racing in her ears the whole way it seemed. It was as if the adrenaline rush she got pushed her home better than she had previously. It sure had pushed that whole bad day from her mind for a while.

The moment she got inside Serena locked the door behind her, she then let her bag slide off her shoulders onto the floor as she let the door be her momentary respite to catch her breath. It wasn't easy hoofing it back to the house after all. Now all she wanted was to rest, maybe take a soaking bath, and call it an early evening. Was that so much to ask for from the universe, just one simple little thing. The moment she was able to, she moved herself away from the door and towards the kitchen to start herself a pot of tea. Tea always helped, that or coffee. Nighttime relaxing though was best with the prior.

She started the pot, preparing the water to make some warm chai tea. Once that was started, she made her way to the bathroom to start a bath for herself. Tea and tub, a perfect combo to end a really blah Monday. It was probably why she liked the comic strip Garfield so much and loved cats. Garfield hated Mondays and well cats were just lazy dozy, cuddly, adorable fluff balls. While waiting for both bath and bliss to prepare, she went to her little make shift office den area to check her mail before hitting the hay. Her den area was littered with fandom stuff. From posters of star wars and star trek, to bobbles of Supernatural, Sherlock, and more. Models of space ships and action figures sat on shelves above her computer desk including a model of the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, a tie fighter, AT-AT, action figures of Obi Wan, R2-D2, Vader, Gandalf, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, as well as some of the different incarnations of a very familiar time lord plus a collectors model of the TARDIS, and much more.

It had been quite obvious that to any friend who did visit her home, would find themselves having nerd thrown up all over them. Every person had to have their hobbies though, hers just happened to be being a closet nerd that never shared it with most anyone but those closest to her. Was she a hard core crazy super fan, hell no! Not even in the remotest sense. She enjoyed a fandom passionately, but not to the point she'd make a mess of herself in public over it. Nerdy she was, crazy she was not. She sadly looked at her collection.

_Why can't I be like you guys? Sure you've all probably have had bad days, heck bad years even, but at least what you lot do...er...have done...is worth at least something. Me on the other hand....what have I got to show for myself....what have I done....what am I worth,_ she sadly mused. She closed her eyes like it was some ritual she did and went back and forth along the rows of figures pointing at them as if choosing at random and finally stopped, taking one of the figures off the shelf. 

Before she opened her eyes, she felt the smooth figure in her hands, its curves, its edges. She could tell just by touch alone who it was. It made her smile just ever so slightly. She then opened her eyes and stared at it. Ironically it being one of the Doctor's incarnations. Not that she took a particular strong interest in that character, but she did envy the companions a bit in that show. Their lives so enriched, yes of course in danger all the time, but still enriched by someone coming along, sweeping them off their human feet, and taking them on wild adventures into the unknown, but not because it would be to just show off the universe, it was so the guide, the Doctor, could share something special, something more...intimate with them.

She often wished she could have had a friend like that. Most the people she knew, they were friends, but she never had anyone who would just give her a chance, a time of day to prove herself to be more than just a girl with an eye condition that needed some sort of kiddy gloves with because they thought her to be weak, fragile, or incapable of doing anything amazing. She was smart and creative. She knew this, deep down inside herself, but what stung her most was no one else really could.

Tilting her head to the side to gauge in the figures features, her heart began to feel like a leaded weight. As far as her mind considered who was she honestly kidding? She was nobody, a dead weight on society, and that was to be her role and place for the rest of her life. Secluded and alone, no matter how hard she tried to be free. Serena didn't want to be alone forever, she yearned for something, anything to give her that chance. She just hoped that, that dream wouldn't come too late one these days.

"Help me find your strength....." she stated, sighing a bit with a choked back sob.

She ran a thumb along the statues face and up past the hairline a few times like the way one would rub a worry stone for sake of easing one's mind or a rabbits foot in hopes of good luck to come ones way before she put the figure back up on the shelf. She then murmured, "I really could use a friend right now."

Life for Serena had been hard from the day she was born, but thoughts progressively only got worse over the years. Bullies in school, lack of support from home, no friends really to speak of. The whole nine yards, it left her an empty emotional scar just waiting for the end to come and seek her out. The only thing that seemed to kept her afloat it seemed was the fictional friends she had on T.V. or at least that was what she believed anyway. Sure she had a few friends, real friends growing up, but most of those friends had moved away after high school, and none of them seemed to keep in touch. Her parents had thought it was best Serena went to college, make a life for herself, be like everyone else and do all the things the rest of the rat race was doing. Like getting a job, getting married, having kids; the typical white picket fence Pleasantville life pretty much. Then of course there was her brother Ashton. Out of anyone he'd probably been the only rock she had been able to lean upon over the years. However, even then her brother was lofty and became distant eventually, having ran off from home the moment he could, leaving her alone to deal with their parents since.

The college thing she had been cool with, she did have dreams after all, some honest good ones. It was just all rest that bothered her, the pressure of everything else that made the good stuff seem just so moot some days. Why did she have to be like everyone else? Why did the things she didn't like being, have to feel, or be so different and unwelcome that she had to do because it was supposedly the right thing to do, but the things she wanted to be different about she couldn't because it didn't fit in with the social norm. It was a tough load to handle and a part of her just wanted to get away for a while to sort it all out.

She finally turned on her computer, her magnifier coming up quite quickly after the main screen booted up. Serena proceeded to check her mail. There was nothing of importance luckily, and there were no messages from any online people she knew either. All was quiet and she supposed it was just better that way, at least this night anyway. Content on at least that note, she turned off the computer and went back to her bath water and tea.

The moment both were ready she make sure one was turned off so it wouldn't overflow and the other turned off so she wouldn't burn the house down. Quickly she made her Chai and vanished her way into the bathroom for a relaxing soak, and relax she did. Serena drank down her tea and even almost fell asleep right there in the tub. She had zone for at least an hour before realizing the water was now cold and she was pruned. However what was most disturbing was the sounds she thought she heard outside the bathroom walls.

At first it was one thud, then another, then the rustling of metal on metal could be heard. There had been someone in the house! The question though was how? Carefully Serena quietly got out and grabbed a towel to quickly dry with. Putting on comfy clothes afterwards that she conveniently kept in the bathroom every night, since she was not about to go outside the bathroom in only her birthday suit and just a towel. She grabbed her brush out of the drawer not only to use to eventually brush her hair hopefully with but also to possibly use as a blunt end weapon to take on the person who broke in.

Quietly she opened the door, listening to the sounds as she wandered out, brush raised at the ready just in case. Her steps were quiet, slow, and steady. Honestly she was a ninja, even her brother would say so. Serena could tell exactly where the sound was coming from too, the kitchen. Whoever they were, they shouldn't have broken in, seeing as she was well trained in some martial arts. Not quite a black belt, but she could land a person on their backside if given the right chance or if all else failed, kick them where it counted so she could ran far enough away to call for help.

The moment she got to the corner of the kitchen she, whipped silently around its corner, but before she could completely beat her intruder down, she ended up tripping over something that had been left in the middle of the floor that wasn't there before she was pretty sure. The one thing that could be noted was that both she and the person who broke in, screamed like Timon and Pumba from the lion king by the way the sound reverberated.

After a few moments the two finally stopped and she realized who it was that had broken in. It wasn't just some random intruder, it was someone familiar to her.

"Ashton!" she squeaked in a high voice filled with shock.

"Yea...." he began, then added with a hint of teasing sarcasm. "Nah, I'm Santa Clause, Merry Christmas and a happy bah humbug to you too."

"What are you doing here?!"

"Wait why do you have a brush in your hand like you were about ready to attack? What were you planning on doing with it, prettify me to death?"

"No I was just.....never mind! You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here? Answer me or so help me I will rain this brush down on you worse than the fight to Mordor!"

"Okay okay, geez, you don't have to get all snarly at me princess." Ashton scoffed a bit and then flinched only just a little when the air of the brush went right near him and hit him in the shoulder. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Answers....now." she snarled a bit more impatiently.

"Well I was looking for your best stuff to drink, but alas you have none." he stated.

"That's cause the good stuff is usually too expensive." she grumbled.

"Plus I was hungry, can't help it if I got the munchies." he stated nonchalantly.

"How did you even get in?" Serena ask, actually confused.

"Well I would have used the hide a key, but you didn't have one." Ash said with a shrug. "So instead I just picked the lock. Ow! Did you really have to hit me with that again?!"

"Yes!" she stated immediately after. "You could have called, texted, sent a letter, hell even a postage card saying 'Hey I'm coming your way can I stop by?'. No instead you had to break into my house, rummage through my things, leave whatever it is you brought in here on my floor!"

"It's my bag and-" he started.

"I don't care if it's the rocks from your head! You could have....you could have at least tried...."

"I...." he began but the stopped as he could tell just by hearing her voice and breathing alone that she was in distress over the matter. "I'm sorry."

Her brother looked down ashamed a bit. Seeing her sister upset really brought him back to reality a bit. It seemed awkward, but a part of him instinctively wanted to go and hug her just a bit to try and make her feel at least a little better for intruding on her night. So he did wander over to her and pulled her into his arms. She resisted at first, but her brother though younger than her, was now a days much taller and a bit stronger than her, so he was able to gently keep her from pulling away long enough to get her to settle down and hug her properly. Eventually after a few moments of estranged silence together he said, "I should probably just go right?"

"No." she said into his shoulder, feeling a bit more relaxed. The bath and tea now was a waste, but she could make at least some more tea before bed. She didn't hate her brother, she was just mad at him. The thing she didn't want to fully admit to, was that now that he was there, she wanted him to stay.

"You sure, I mean I did kinda just barge in and that." he admitted.

"No." she shook her head and finally pulled away from Ash. "You can stay."

"Really?" he stated feeling a little better himself. "I can make it up to you."

"How?" she asked.

"Hold on, let me check my pockets." he rummaged and found what looked like a candy in his pocket. "Ah hah here we go. How about this?"

"No thanks." she said shaking her head and then thought for a moment.

"Mkay, whatever." he stated and put it away. "So, how long are we lookin' at? Just tonight? Just a few days? A few weeks?"

"I think I know how you can pay me." Serena offered.

"Oh?" he looked intrigued.

"Can you clean?" she mused a small smirk crossed her face.

"Yea, if need be. Of course I can, I'm OCD about remember."

"Cook?"

"Maybe, though the last time I tried..." he thought about it and then decided better against it. "Never mind forget I said that."

"Well I think as long as you can help keep things clean, maybe cook a meal or two with supervision, maybe do laundry and garbage once in a while, oh and no lighting up in this house, you can stay here as long as needed I guess. Why do you need a place to stay anyway?"

"Damn, well you're no fun. The BF kicked me to the curb and we'll just leave it at that." he lightly grumped a blah tone.

"BF....right." she didn't sound completely convinced.

"So things didn't go completely to plan as I hoped." he admitted.

"Clearly." she stated dryly as she put the brush down on the table and walked into the kitchen to make some more tea for herself. "Want some tea, I'm making another pots worth, seeing as the last one was scared out of me by you."

"Uh, sure. I guess.' he answered a little unsure if he wanted to drink tea. "Can I at least have something to eat with it? Still got the munchies ya know."

"Fine, I'll make you a sandwich." she gave in. "Just...go put your stuff in the spare room so I, nor yourself, kill ourselves on it...again."

"Maybe you again, but me, nah I'm Daredevil." he teased. "Besides I didn't want to put it anywhere else just in case. Wanted to make sure I could re find it."

"Uh huh, you couldn't at least have put it more up against the wall or under the table or something?" Serena gave a skeptical look.

"Sorry?" he offered. "I'll go move it. Don't get your royal undies in a bunch."

Before he could possibly get smacked with his sisters brush again, Ash went and took his stuff to the spare room across from hers. The room had a small twin in it and drawers. The thing looked barely used, which wasn't surprising in the slightest. He set his things down on the bed with a whamp sound and looked around the semi tiny space before giving a shrug of approval before heading back out to the kitchen.

"You know, I was wondering. Why don't you have indicators for stuff? I couldn't find anything in this kitchen." he stated as he entered.

"Because I don't need them." she gave, emphasizing on need by extending it.

"I hear you talking, but all I hear is wah wah wah...internalized ableism....blah blah blah....I sound just like mom and dad. I really just want to be like everybody else." Ash said in an almost mocking tone, a hand flapping up and down in a fashion like a pair of lips talking. He was so wrapped up in his tease though that he didn't notice her swiftly grab the brush again and smack him with it. "Ow! Come on! I'm fragile!"

"Then stop giving me hell." she stated. "You know I'd really like to use this for its designated purposes rather than swat you with it right."

"Meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh..." he mocked again, laughing as she tried to swat him again but this time he caught her wrist and turned her into him and began to tickle her until she let go of the brush.

"Damn you Ashton!" she laughed herself as she wiggled free. "Brat."

"Hah! I'm now the lord of the brush! One brush to rule them all!" he stated waving it in the air, pulling it away from her as she tried to jump and get it. "Nope!"

"Ashton!" she whined.

"Never!" he retorted.

"Give...me....my...brush!" she continued to try and reach for it. Ash turned to try and get away, but Serena tackled him from behind and they stumbled, both giggling into the living room. Eventually both fell over on the couch and continued to wrestle before Serena finally gave in out of tiredness.

"Give?" Ash asked with a grin.

"Yeah....give." she stated with a sigh as she laid a head on her brothers chest. "Eh, I missed you jerk."

"Mmm, I missed you to ...bitch." he said honestly poking her nose then handed the brush back. "Here."

Serena took the brush and laid it on the coffee table, she was too comfortable at the moment to move or brush her hair for that matter. She could feel Ash's hand begin to run through her hair, which started to make her more relaxed and sort of sleepy. She was still going to have her second cup of tea though, but just a few minutes snuggling her younger brother wouldn't kill her. For a while they just lounged there in silence.

"You know I love you. Really I'm not trying to nag you or be mean. I'm not mom and dad you know. But sooner or later you're going have to face this. I mean, I get it, it sucks, but it's not just going to go away no matter how much either of us want it to some days. You just got to keep your head up and keep moving. I really am sorry I didn't stay. I just, I needed to find myself, who I was my own way. You can understand right?"

"Yeah." she nodded and hugged him, it was hard, but she'd try for him. "Where did you go?"

"To Cali." he stated with a shrug. "Almost made it onto one of them talent shows, The Voice. Would have probably made it all the way too.....though thinking about it now...I probably shouldn't have went on stage all tripped out."

"I can't believe you did that." she stated with a small laugh as she scolded him, burying her face into his chest, embarrassed for him.

"Yeah, not my most shining moment I supposed." he mused, running a hand through her hair again. "But now that I am here, I promise I will do my best to try and change my ways. And I won't try and abandon you again. Okay?"

"Okay." She booped his nose finally back and grinned before finally getting the strength to tear herself away from her brother long enough to go get herself and her brother a cup of tea. She had already made the sandwich so she brought both out eventually and put a cup and plate down in front of Ash. She then sat down next to him and curled up into his side as she clung to her own cup of tea. She decided for them to sit and watch something for a little while, while they drank tea and cuddled.

Later on that night both clambered into their respective beds. Ash dozed off right away, she could hear his light snoring coming muffled through the wall. She on the other hand found herself drifting off into what she thought was going to be a dreamless sleep and for a while it was, but as midnight rolled around, she began to toss and turn. The dreams and nightmares having returned to haunt her once more with vivid images of things she could not quite understand....yet.


	4. Signs

The next morning, at around 5 or 6 a.m., Serena woke up to the sounds of noise. It practically startled her awake, until she was able to gauge where it was coming from and who was making the noise. The sound of a vacuum worked its way back and forth somewhere down the hall from her room, probably the living room itself. It was matched along with a voice that she knew all too well, Ash. She couldn't quite tell what he was singing at the moment, but she was more than half tempted to find out.

Getting up, she stretched out her tiredness and made her way to the door still in pajamas. Opening the door she made her way down the hall to see what her brother was up to. She noted as she reached the living room, that her brother's back was to her as he was vacuuming the floor. Now that she was out there, she could distinctly smell food cooking as well. That seemed dangerous, her brother cooking, but then again she had almost forgotten her brothers cooking capabilities. Hearing the song he was singing, she snickered at him. Especially when his voice went high a couple times on some notes. Her brother could sing, but not with headphones on, clearly.

The way he was shaking his butt like he just didn't care because he believed no one was there to watch him, just made Serena almost die inside. Her brother was a royal dork. Oh if only she had grabbed her phone to video the whole shenanigans that would have been priceless. Grinning she crept up behind her brother, hoping to be a brat and spook him just a little. Spook him she did. He was so engrossed into his singing that when she poked him in the sides he didn't just yelp, he sang slash screamed a note of a song as he dropped the vacuum and ripped off his headphones to whirl around at her.

"What the hell....oooo." he exclaimed before realizing that her sister was giggling so loudly at him that it made him blush. "Uh, hi. Morning. Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't wake me. Okay well maybe sort of did but eh." Serena stated through the fit of giggles she was throwing. She even tried covering her mouth to try and stifle it as well as stifle a waking yawn. "I would have had to be up soon anyway."

"I was just ....yeah. Um, trying to ya know, do my part and all." Ash rambled. "Just though I'd do it as a thank you. For letting me stay."

"Oh Ash...." she still snickered and hugged him. "You didn't have to do that. You're such a dork, but thanks anyway."

"Your welcome." he said bemused, he could tell she must have been feeling better after a night's sleep.

"You still are silly though," she couldn't stop giggling. "I swear, you sounded like a five year old school girl ripping off a band aid."

"Shut up, I did not." he pouted.

"Sure you did." Serena retorted.

"Did not." Ash pouted more and gave her a pathetic stare.

"Okayyy, fine. I was only teasing." she mused. "What are you cooking?"

"Eggs, bacon, the usual morning foods." Ash shrugged. "I was just about to go check on the bacon before you spoopified the hell out of me."

"Spoopified? What the heck does that even mean?" she scoffed.

"I don't know, I just....made it up okay!" Ash said hastily.

"What, did I spook you so bad you almost pooed yourself is that it?" Serena smirked.

"Oh hush you." Ash returned. "Why don't you go pretty yourself or something. Go do whatever it is normal girls do. All that frilly foo foo crap or whatever. So I can get breakfast done."

"I don't frilly foo foo." she said wrinkling her nose. "I'm not one of those sorts of girls."

"Okay well," he thought. "Go take a shower then. At least do that. By the time you done getting your sleepy looking face ready, food should be done."

"Yeah, sure, okay." she stated, dragging out the word a bit dramatically. "I'll go get ready so I can leave you with your girly singing so you don't feel all embarrassed."

"Shut up!" Ash reddened.

"It's true and you know it." Serena smirked. "I promise, I won't tell anyone."

"Right." Ash huffed. "Whatever."

"Oh don't be a grumpy goose. I'm going. Just don't burn the house down because of me distracting you. Go on." she said and then walked off down the hall.

A shower and a steamy bathroom later, Serena was more awake and ready for the day. By the time she came back out from the warm room, the food was ready and the vacuuming was done. Her brother making food and doing the vacuuming made her heart all warm and fuzzy. She joined him at the table and stared at the food. It looked better than she had expected. Especially the fact that not everything was labeled in the kitchen.

"You're lucky I'm clever and can figure out some of the stuff without labeling." he stated smugly.

"Right." she said rolling her eyes just a bit. "It does look good though. I will admit. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks."

"Well if not I can make it up to you with maybe a cup of coffee or something and a sandwich at some fast food place, okay." Ash said in a cocky response. He could have made a mistake on his own, but he'd never admit. He then reached out towards her plate to try and grab it, "Orrrr, I could just eat it?"

"Hands off Daredevil!" she slapped his hand. He recoiled trying to escape her attack.

"Ow!" he yelped failing to escape.

"Well, that's what you get for trying to steal my breakfast! But, about the coffee and food elsewhere if this doesn't work, fair." she said in approval, then took a bite of food. Luckily the food itself was good, but the coffee that had been brewed, was something left to be desired. Serena wrinkled her nose at how weak it was. "Bleh, the coffee could use a power up."

"Yeah, sorry about that. My partner before coming here only had a simple machine. Basically a pop and go sort of deal. You though, yours is super complicated, so I had to figure something else out."

"You used the microwave?" she asked.

"No." he stated. "Tea Kettle, and before you start, I know it's really redneck or whatever. I did it as carefully as I could. Wasn't easy though. I could still try and make another batch?"

"I could have said that was very British, but..." she shrugged then took another drink, finding the grain of the coffee hitting her lips. She cringed again, "Nah I'm good."

"Suit yourself." he shrugged and continued to eat his food.

The two of them finished their food more in silence. Just because they were siblings, did not mean moments could become slightly awkward. Afterwards, Serena got her things ready to go to classes while her brother cleaned up the mess that breakfast had made. Just before she was about to head out the door though, her brother went and grabbed his own things, like his jacket and cane.

"What are you doing?" Serena inquired.

"I figured I could walk with you." he stated, tugging his jacket a bit to straighten it out.

"I'm going to classes. You do realize that right." she said with justification.

"So?" Ash pushed.

"I'm not five you know, I can walk to the bus myself." Serena scoffed.

Ash gave a teasing taken aback stare, "Well then I don't have to go with you, and I don't have to possibly get you a better cup of coffee. Besides what if I want to walk just because I want fresh air hmm."

"Fine, but I was only teasing." she pouted.

"So was I." Ash nudged and then laughed. "Seriously I could use the fresh air though."

"Alright." she huffed. "Just don't let me be late."

"You won't be late, I promise." he assured doing a cross his heart motion over his chest. "Don't be so paranoid."

She swatted him before going out the door with her things. Ash only laughed at her in response and followed her out closing the locked door behind him.

"So," he asked. "Any cute guys in your class?"

"What?!" her head whipped around to look at him. "No! Not for you! Besides what part of terrible horrible icky vampire warding type of establishment do you not understand. It has anti Ash written all over it. Or, have we turned a new leaf since."

"Maybe." Ash said with a dreamy grin.

"Oh lord. Come on." Serena grabbed her brother and yanked him along.

They began to walk down the sidewalk at a gentle pace. She supposed that she could miss the first bus if she had to seeing as they ran on the half hour. She'd just be cutting it close to class. They were a good couple blocks away by the time Ash decided to speak up.

"Such a great morning." he said breathing in the fresh air deeply.

"Yeah, it kinda is isn't it?" Serena more mused to herself than asking a question.

"Well my day might be at least looking a bit up then." he said with a smile.

"Why is that?" she said giving a confused face.

"Oh I don't know, just...feels like it will." he shrugged, his cane sliding across the ground a gliding scrape fashion. He then looked in Serena's direction and tilted his head a moment before looking back straight forward, "Huh?"

"What?" she asked.

"Oh nothing." he said dismissively, he clearly didn't want to get into a debate over what he was thinking.

"Come on, it's not just nothing, it's something." Serena pressed on.

"Well, I just, I couldn't help but notice you weren't using yours." Ash stated nonchalantly.

"Using what?" she stated just a tad blond.

"Your cane," he offered. "I heard you were supposed to have one by now from mom and dad. I'm surprised you're not."

"Well, I, um," she began. "I don't need to use it right now."

"Again all I am hearing is blah blah blah internalized ableism." he scoffed. "You may or may not need it, but overall wouldn't it be better to be safe than sorry? Besides, once you start, you can eventually deck out yours."

He held up the cane he had, "Like mine."

His cane was a sort of smoky black with bright red reflective on it. It looked a bit like something straight out of Tron to be honest in design and at night the red would light up for cars to see easily. It was clear Ash was at least more comfortable with his position in life than his sister was. However, he had more years to perfect that in any case.

"To be honest," he continued. "This actually I think is handier in a place like this, than probably the standard white one you got. Especially in the winter. Mine at least won't blend in with snow like yours will."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Serena grumped. "It's just, I don't know. I'm not used to it. I don't like how it takes up one of my hands. Or how it makes me feel self-consciously. And yeah it doesn't look appeasing or fashionable. No one looks at a cane and says this could be fifty percent cooler. Or the person wielding it is still even human. It's like...it's like they equate cane to dumb or....gods forbid...alien. It's like you practically live in a whole different dimension from the rest of the world the moment you pick up one of them things."

"I know, I was there once too myself you know. It's just, the only way you're going to face it, is if you do it head on. You can't run from it forever. Sometimes the only way out is through. Besides, what's so wrong with being alien? Normality is over rated a boring. Anyway, once you stop running from your disability," he did air quotes to emphasize disability, "Or even thinking about it as such. You can learn to turn it into a strength and even make it work for you. Observe."

At that moment he looked vaguely around trying to find a way to prove a point, "The light ahead of us is still red, we are literally twenty paces from the last curb, someone across the street just gave a pan handling dude on the street corner forty five....no wait.....sixty eight cents. I smell deli chicken and deasil, so I'm sure were near a gas station. Need I go..."

He stopped, his gaze became distant as he finished his last word, "...on."

Serena was about to speak but Ash stopped her with a gesture as he cocked his head again to the side, listening.

"Do you hear that?" he said almost as if he were trying to whisper.

"Hear what? I hear traffic, and the wind. Maybe a chime from a house." she offered.

"No, not that." he stated vaguely. "Something....something else. Something more...rhythmic?"

"Nope, sorry." Serena shrugged.

"What is that noise?" Ash really wanted to know.

"I don't know, maybe the rocks finally coming loose in your head?" she teased.

"Oh hah, hah. No, this is too rhythmical. More like, an uneven washer....or drum beat, or something else that can keep a steady rhythm. Like very steady, not even the slightest variation."

He began to tap out the rhythm with the tip of his cane, the beat of it going ratta, tat, tat, tat in a one, two, three, four motion with only the slightest pause in between four and one. Serena gave him a weird stare.

"It's getting closer." he breathed. "Louder."

"Come on, never mind. Don't worry about it. I still have a bus to catch you know." she stated trying to drag him off towards the bus.

"No, wait, it'll only take a minute. I think it's over that way ish." he pointed towards the gas station.

"You don't have to prove to me your Daredevil okay. You made your point." Serena insisted.

"No, seriously!" he urged, really wanting to know what that sound was, practically OCD level of curiosity, He then bolted without her. "I mean it, it'll only be just a moment! Haven't you ever just wanted to know something! Had to know the answer!"

Exasperated, Serena shrugged a full armed "okay", before trailing after her brother who was already way ahead of her, trying to get to the gas station itself. Why her brother insisted on finding the source of a sound she wasn't quite certain. However, the sound seemed vaguely familiar, and if she hadn't been so stressed out, she was sure she would have been able to put a placement on the rhythm her brother had drummed out. Eventually she caught up to him just as he was at the door to the café part of the gas station. Ash just stood there, trying to find the source of the sound.

"I swear, it was just right there!" he exclaimed, more to himself than to Serena or anyone else. "Right there, like plain in my face there! And now....ugh! Fine, let's go catch your stupid bus."

"Ahhh, no." she stated wearily. "You managed to drag me all the way over here, so no, now we are going to go inside and you are going to get me that coffee mister."

"Fine." he mopped and gave a dramatic look as he was pulled inside by his sister. The scent of coffee beans filled the air, a very much welcomed scent in Serena's case.

"Oh stop mopping." she said as she looked back at him to make sure he got through the door, but when she did, she hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and ended up tripping on the yellow CAUTION sign that was left in the middle of the walkway, which made her not only squeak out as she began to fall, but also made her let go of her brother all at the same time. Her blood rushed as she was certain she was going to go full plant the floor, possibly face and all, until she didn't.

Before she could even get fully to her knees something stopped her decent. A pair of arms had grabbed her practically under her own arms and held her there long enough for her to register that she was no longer descending. Those same arms helped her stand back up. Heat flushed to her face as she felt super embarrassed. Of course her brother had heard the ruckus and was halfway between wanting to laugh at her sister's demise and be worried all at once.

"You should be more careful." a voice aged, foreign, and male in tone said briskly. "You alright though?"

"Yeah, um, thanks." Serena stated as the man let her go. She then stared with a glare down at the toppled over sign, "Stupid wet floor sign."

Serena's brother then couldn't help but bust out laughing a little in a snicker fit. Serena shot him a dirty look, which if he wasn't so sensitive to the world around him, wouldn't have reacted with a "shutting up" face as her eyes pierce right through him like lasers.

"You alright Serena?" Ash genuine asked this time.

"Yeah fine, thanks to this kind gentleman." she stated.

"Oh, cool. Yeah thanks dude." he stated with a nod in the older man's direction.

"Not a problem." the man stated, his accent sort of thick.

"Yes thank you, again. Anyway, Ash come on, you and I still got coffee to get, and me a bus to catch. It's not like I can just teleport to class." she urged not wanting to take up anymore of the man's time that she had run into.

"Oh come on! Can't I just-" he was cut off.

"No." she stated.

"But-" he insisted.

"No!" she stated with exasperation as she tried so hard to get him to follow her to get in line to get coffee, he wasn't quite budging though.

"Dude! Can't I just take five second to thank the man who just saved you from eating tile? Besides, the dudes got a killer accent! Very classy for Great Falls." he pouted, then held out a hand for the other man to take. "Nice to meet you."

The older gentleman raised a brow at them, but put his own hand out anyway to clasp Ash's in a quick but firm handshake. The moment Ash made contact with the other man's hand, he found the same rhythm he had before, but this time he felt it too. That same ratta, tat, tat, tat beat. It made Ash tilt his head with curiosity as well as slight concern. To him it didn't seem normal. Lips pressed into a frown he looked up in the general direction of the other man's face, "You should get that checked."

The other man's gaze was one of confusion. Again he raised a silvered brow at the younger gentleman, "What?"

"Your heart." he stated in that same sort of distant vague tone he got when he was laser focused on something faint or distant.

"What about it?" the older man stated his accent flittering in and out with ease.

"It's....murmuring." he gave with careless thought of the fact that the man before him was a stranger as far as he was concerned. "Kinda like this."

He tapped his cane again, the same rhythm as before. This somehow made the other man's face go white as a sheet and he put a free hand on top of Ash's to stop him from tapping his cane like that. The gentleman gave a look of stop doing that, but when Ash didn't respond to the stare, he could only assume he couldn't see it probably and said instead, "I'll....look into it."

"Okay time to go!" Serena stated grabbing Ash by the shoulders this time and dragging him away. "Sorry about my brother, he's had a rough week. It was lovely meeting you!"

"Serena!" he proclaimed and fussed until they were in line to order. "What was that for!?"

"To keep you from further embarrassing yourself!" she hissed and then looked over at the man who was still standing there, apparently waiting for his own coffee, and was looking at them. Her cheeks burned again and she looked back at her brother.

"More like embarrass you. I was perfectly fine!" he grumped.

"Right, and you didn't sound two bananas away from a blended shake. Nope not at all." her gaze was hard and piercing.

"Dude, easy on the lasers, I think you might be burning a hole through my clothes." he scoffed, trying to make the mood lighter. It wasn't working though and he hung his head in defeat. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."

She tried so hard to keep a stoic face, but seeing her brother with such pathetic eyes at her made her power of rawr turn into power of meh in less than sixty seconds, "I'm not mad, dork."

Serena put an arm around her brother as they waited to get their orders. The other gentleman who had saved her from eating floor must have gotten his in the time it had took for them to get theirs ordered, because by the time Serena looked again, he was gone.

"So coffee?" Ash asked going back to being happy again, knowing his puppy face had worked.

"Yeah coffee." Serena shook her head and laughed as they ordered. She look over towards the door in thought. Maybe her brother was right, maybe the day was going to look up, even if it was only just a little. All she knew was she had this strange gut feeling this was at least going to be an unusual day. She didn't know how, but she had a feeling it was going to be something different.


	5. Hide and Seek

Meanwhile...

The man who was seen inside the coffee shop, now could be seen by the world itself leaving it at a very steady pace, coffee in hand and a determined look on their aged face. What was most peculiar about them, was that their clothing seemed very out of style for such a less classy place to get something to drink. This did not seem to bother them, however, as they walked away.

What the two that were left behind in the cafe did not realize was that this man was someone that at least one of them knew very well. Not in a personal sense per say, but a clear and understandable one at least. The only problem was, neither of them could see his face clearly to distinguish the details. If only the elder gentleman knew the sort of position he had gotten himself into. He'd have probably ran for the hills and not looked back with the sort of attention he'd end up getting. Luckily for him this was a smaller town in a nowhere state that it made getting lost in the space of it all, very easy. One would think that, that wouldn't be possible, but for his sake it was a strong blessing. Not that he realized that of course as he made his way back to his home.

Approaching, he unlock the blue door before him and pressed with an open faced palm against its wooden etched surface. It swung inward with a creek before he stepped through its straight edged arch and closed it with a light rattling click behind him. By any standard it should have been impossible for him to find any comfort whatsoever behind that door, if one were took look at it from its outside perspective, which seemed dimensionally crapped for even a single person to find soloist in. However, if one were to enter inside, just like he had, they'd have found the impossible more than grandly over assumed.

In fact the whole interior was big enough just in the few steps alone to get inside, for two people to walk comfortably elbow to elbow next to each other without so much as a bump into one another in between them. The rest of the room, when one got over the sheer shock of the initial entrance, would notice just how cavernous the rest of it was. It wasn't just one floor, but multiple, with what looked like a circular platform with an encased beam of light, a control panel surrounding it, and it jutting up to a very much high rotating ceiling all the way down to just under its wire meshed floor. Of course circular panels lined the walls and accented lights surrounded everywhere for a more dramatic effect. To the nonresident this would be something of a shock of awe seeing such grandiose, but to a simple old, very much mad, man in a silly blue nonsense making box; it was much more a home away from home.

Not even hesitating, he walked up to where the controls were and looked at them, coffee still in hand. With a free hand he grabbed the screen and whirled it towards himself to look at what was on it. It was still working on repairing itself, his home that was, the TARDIS. Yes, that silly old man was none other than the Doctor himself. His tired twelfth face, looking over the information of how things were coming along before giving a weary sigh. Taking a step back, he took a drink of his coffee and paced.

"This is all your fault you know." he said to what seemed like nothing in particular. "You got us into this mess somehow so, it justifies my reasons for not feeling sorry for you right now."

A moment of silence, and then a sound of whoops, blips, and other light chirping sorts of sounds the TARDIS could make came ringing through the room. To the normal ear this would seem like nothing, just normal ship noise, but the Doctor knew better. He could tell that his girl was pouting. As she should, was his thoughts. The TARDIS nearly had an internal meltdown conniption fit just getting where they were. Though, in the older time lord's mind it could have been worse he supposed. He was just glad she had landed on Earth, early twenty first century, something he knew quite well at this point. So he wouldn't be bruised at his TARDIS for long.

As was, there was already something to do. A mystery to solve. Perhaps that was why he was more in a mood than actually being mad at his girl for almost nearly frying herself. The Doctor never screwed up so badly, not that often. Yet the night before seemed like quite a disaster as he was trying to recall the details to put them together as he paced about, sipping slightly at his coffee every few seconds.

The night before....

Cloister bells going off, the TARDIS had wheezed and landed with a hard thud. The Doctor, having waved off smoke that had started emanating from the control panels, tried to see where they had ended up. Unfortunately the screen had been black out at the moment. Stupid, stupid, stupid, was all the Doctor could think of. Something had gone completely wrong with their travel through the time vortex.

Sure he had picked up a reading of something strange, but that shouldn't have caused the TARDIS to go haywire like she had. No there was something more to this, but the Doctor couldn't put his finger on just what quite yet. He especially couldn't with the TARDIS's mainframe down. She had immediately gone into repair mode as soon as they landed. He was just going to have to do this search more the old fashioned way he supposed.

Going swiftly, he went and grabbed a special device from within one of his many hidy drawers. He was going to go out into the open world armed with a searching tool and his own time lord intuition to find out why they ended up in such a messy predicament.

"Don't you dare go anywhere, you hear me?" he spoke sternly to the TARDIS. "You better still be here when I get back. I don't care if you have to do repairs you can stay put."

He was in a bit of a grumpy mood, but nothing too serious. Nothing that wouldn't go away after a few hours of some fresh adventurous air. Tucking the device close to his chest and making sure his sonic screwdriver was well in his pocket, he made his way to go out the TARDIS door. The poor girl only made a few pathetic whirring blip sounds of what seemed like dizzy induced understanding before she could sense him close the door behind him and walk away from her.

The Doctor was now a man on a mission. Before even turning on his device he was able to at least gauge the planet, the century, and almost up to the month and day he was in. He could practically gauge even where he was in proportion to where he was on the planet, just by his time lore senses alone.

The sun was just passing down to the horizon where it would fade into a lovely TARDIS blue skyline before its light vanish for the evening. The air he had taken note of, was sweet in taste, grassy and wild. It almost made him think of home just a bit. But, he couldn't dwell on such a thought, there was work to be done. Taking out the device again, he turned it on and began scanning the area with it and his sonic screwdriver. There was definitely something strange. He could even say temporally odd.

Yet what intrigued him more, was that his readings just around the area of the TARDIS, weren't the only ones he was getting. There was more. There was something, or maybe even someone or ones, here. Other than just plain simple humans. Actual alien activity there other than himself. This, he was going to have to definitely investigate. As he watched the screen, the readings were telling him that they were the strongest coming from what looked like a very downtown area of this city.

Only geared with his own feet, he began walking at a very fast pace towards where the signals were coming from. By this point, the sky had gone dark, and the only light he was able to go by was the ones the streets provided, which unfortunately really wasn't much. However, he didn't need much to keep up with what he was doing.

Most of the town, he was starting to realize, seemed quite quiet for the most part. The Doctor didn't know how to take this really, the eerie silence of it all, so he tried hard not to focus on it. It didn't help that he jumped, however, the moment he heard what sounded like a scream nearby, and by the time he reach the area known as downtown central he could hear it even louder. Naturally his caring and curious nature, made him pick up his pace and run towards the sounds that he had heard.

By the time he had gotten there though, the scene before him was one he did not want to see, helplessness. Before him a girl and a guy were standing in front of another man, their postures threatening. They were attempting to bully the poor guy. The Doctor stood there momentarily frozen in shock (and maybe a bit intrigue) as the girl just watched the other man approach the frightened individual cowering against a wall. It was then that man started to do something unnatural, very alien in fact. From what the Doctor could see was a sort of light emanating from the attacker and dissolving into the victim, which seemed to leave the victim to seem like they were being drained like a battery. This motion was what prompted the Doctor to take action.

"Hey!" the Doctor, finally snapped out of his temporary haze, and began running towards them at full tilt. Anger started spreading all over his face as he called out again in warning, "Hey!"

The two who had been ganging up on the terrified man, turned to look at the Doctor as he came barreling down on them. Frightened at seeing such a sight and the thought of possibly being caught, they began to take off just as the Doctor reached the now slumped man who was out cold by this point. Quickly he had reached down to test the man's pulse fearing the worst as he looked up watching the direction the other two were running. Unfortunately the man as far as he could tell, was dead. A solemn look etched his lips. The Doctor got back up quickly, backing away from the man with regret before he turned and full force running after them. He mused in a fanciful belief that his ability to run fast would be a hope to catch up to the alien culprits.

Sadly he did not catch them or catch even up to them at all for that matter. All this did was make him sigh with frustration as he gripped at his hair roughly, eyes darting about searching as he turned in a three sixty in one spot. He wondered to himself if he was actually just getting to old for this nonsense. Defeated, he slouched back to go find the man hoping against all reason he had been wrong and actually had saved the man from such a fate as death, but by the time he got there he found an even bigger shock, disappointment, and frustration. The body was gone! Which meant whoever, whatever those things where, their victim somehow just managed to come back to life and walk away. Luckily for him, the man's face was etched into the back of his mind and that if he had to see them again, he'd know that whoever they were, their definitely most likely at this point dangerous.

Even though he was left in a state of frustration, he was also in a state of exhilaration. There was something to do, a consolation prize to the fact him and the TARDIS pretty much crash landed. Armed with this knowledge, he made his way back in the direction of his TARDIS, a cold stare on his face and a determined step to his walk. They weren't going to get away with this, whoever they were, because now...the Doctor was in.

Back to the present...

His mind reeled over the situation, over and over again. He was at a loss though, that fire he had hours before now extinguished with tired weary headache filled thoughts. There was definitely something he was missing. Something huge, but with so little facts, it made things quite hard. Taking another sip of coffee he tried to recall more of what had already transpired. Of course there was a bit of domestic things, like going to get coffee at the coffee shop.

He didn't have to do that, not really he could have gone to the kitchen to grab a cup, but somehow taking the domestic approach felt more right for some odd reason. It sort of made him smirk to himself slightly. Oh if only Rose could see him now, she'd be making loads of fun pokes at his approaches to things these days compared to back then. People change, even him.

He drew his ever quickly cooling cup of coffee to his lips as he passed around the massive control room at least part way before stopping and looking at the controls solemnly. He was glad that part of her was working again. Yet, it was like, there was a certain nagging at the back of his mind when he looked at them these days. One that if he only just had access to, he'd probably look back on fondly, but alas it was just that, a distant unattainable thought. At least for the most part. There always seemed to be this feeling though, this sort of "I told you so" or "go on do it" sort of vibe he'd get and it always seemed to push him on, but in the end there was always still something missing, something that felt like it sat between his two hearts and almost wanted to wretch them both out like a gaping hole.

Even as he moved up to the panel in front of him and flicked a lever on it, he felt that deep hole aching at him. What he didn't realize was, what it was, was the fact that the TARDIS aside from her sentient self, was empty. The Doctor could have had all the rooms in the multiverse he wanted, but that wouldn't ever make up for the missing thing that he wanted most right then. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately depending on how one saw things he couldn't remember it anyway. So all he was left with was only the feelings, ones that seemed to keep telling him to keep going.

After the switch was flipped a map came up on the rotatable screen. It was a map of the local area. This allowed him to try and contemplate better where the aliens might have gone, possibly locations they'd hide out at out of habit. Most of the collected info so far located things mostly downtown. There had seemed to be a lot of abandoned places down there so probably it was one of the best bets. He could have thought maybe they had plans for the base that seemed to be located in town he was sure that might become their next target so they could eventually get out of there or even try and take control of earth at least. He had to stop whatever they were though none the less from harming anyone again.

Brows furrowed he downed more of his coffee, frustration filling him again. In his mind he then heard that little voice going off again like a memory. You know you want to. Just do it already. Go on, get out there. What are you waiting for? You're surely not gonna save the day wallowing about in here. So go on...run you clever man...run like you never have before.

He finished off this drink at that point, downing it fast, and then throwing it over his shoulder as he turned away from the screen, it luckily landing in a waste bin near a chair he had about in the control room, "This is ridiculous!"

It was like he was trying to exclaim it to someone, but he was the only one there. His words fell on deaf ears. He looked to the ceiling, "What am I supposed to do!?"

He then looked down and said more quietly his accent carrying just a hair thicker as he covered his face, "What.....am I supposed to do...."

Tears almost threatened to rush from his eyes, though a part of him didn't even understand why. He didn't let any fall though. Instead, he ran his hands down his face and turned with a more hurt stare into the nothing in front of him, "If you think I'm so clever then what should I do!?"

Almost as if whatever he was trying to talk to responded that or just the universe mocked, a sound went off on his console, indicating there was activity again. He looked at it almost in genuine bewilderment before racing over to the screen to get a better view of what the TARDIS instruments were reporting. There was definitely something. He had to go back out there. He had to find the answers. The voice in his mind was right, whether he liked to admit that or not. He had to do something. Even if his stubborn, now Scottish esque, pride was getting the better of him.

"Alright...." he stated backing away from the console, grabbing his things he had from the night before and began to get ready to leave the TARDIS once more. "Alright."

He made sure he had everything before he went to the door itself, and then turned back to the TARDIS core at the center of the room, "You know....I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."

The TARDIS beeped, whirled, and blooped a bit in response as if to say "Yes, yes now get out of here my thief." to him. He then turned and dashed out the door, locking it behind him as he made his way to where the signal had been emanating from. He would make this right somehow. Even if he had to scour the whole city he'd find them and make it right.


	6. It's A Trap

Serena had made it too school for the day, and of course it was as routine as most other days. However, there were thoughts that had been lingering at the back of her mind. Things that her brother had said earlier that morning and just things about the incident at the café. She had to shrug them off as best as possible though to get through the classes she was in. It wasn't easy, however, and she seemed very much distracted as she listened to lecture.

She was lucky she didn't get called on for anything seeing as her mind wasn't there in the present. It felt like the hours could have poured on like a slow stream of quick sand for all she cared. How could someone even think about classes when something more intriguing caught her attention? It was the big sky no man land state for heaven's sake nothing interested ever happened! Yet it had, and as much as she wanted to deny such facts, she couldn't escape the obvious and it was killing her inside. Even as lunch had rolled around she still couldn't seem to get out of her funk state of thought.

While she was trying to read one of her text books, however, a voice broke the chaos that was here mind. It made her jump a bit as she looked up to see who had caught her attention. Before her, one of her classmates stood staring at her waiting to see if she'd respond. He was a decent looking man, one that many a girl wouldn't mind going with if given the chance. Sadly though since losing a decent portion of her sight, she couldn't even fully tell if he was giving one of them flirtatious stares or not. She smiled in any case, just so she didn't seem unfriendly.

"Oh, hi." she offered.

"Hey." the man stated as he still stood there. "I was wondering if I could sit with you and eat. Maybe talk shop about class or something. It doesn't have to be class."

"Uh, sure." Serena pushed some hair out of her face. Luckily by this point she was able to put a name to the voices she got to hear. She could tell that this particular one was Jordan. What she didn't know, however, was who Jordan really was. She didn't know that anything had happened to him the night before. So she was oblivious to the danger she potentially was in even right then and there. It wasn't her fault of course, she wasn't a mind reader and she had no idea the guy was out last night.

"Great." he stated, sitting down across from her, setting his bag down. There was a smile on the man's face, but it was uncertain the intention of that smile. "So, history was a bore today, don't you think? Honestly, I don't understand half the reason we have to read all these books we have. It's kinda stupid when you think about it. There is no way anyone could read, research, and write papers on eight separate reads over the course of a quarter. The professor has got to be out of his mind."

"Yeah." Serena stated looking sort of down, his words sort of cutting unintentionally like a fire heated knife through her. He caught the embarrassed look.

"Oh I'm sorry, that was rude to start off like that." he offered. "Sometimes my mouth just wanders as if it has a mind of its own."

"Eh." she stated a bit more solemnly, this good meet up was feeling a bit like it was kind of going sour already.

"Um...." the man rubbed the back of his neck a bit. "Yeah sorry. Seriously. I'd say I understand, but....I don't."

"It's okay." she sighed fiddling a bit with the page in front of her and then looked at him. "Your right, the professor is a hard ass, and just a bit crazy if he thinks anyone can get through that class of his. I know I'm going to fail it, I just don't have the speed to read and do the rest all at once. And he refuses to give anyone extra time to do so, so."

"That's not true. I'm sure you can get through it. I know this is probably going to come off wrong, but I think you got the inner strength to do it." he stated, already seeming like he was regretting what he said. The man was being smooth, that was for sure, or at least trying anyway. It would seem like there was nothing wrong with him at all.

"Yeah that was bad," Serena cringed a bit, she couldn't tell if he was suggesting her impairment which she didn't usually try to show outwardly, or if it was a "because you're a girl" card that he was trying to pull. Either way it was off putting. "But I get it."

"Maybe....," it sounded like Jordan was thinking about something very hard. "Maybe we could help each other. I can catch you up on reading and you can maybe get me through some of the over my head jargon the books seem to pose."

"You can't be serious?" she looked taken aback with a bit of astonishment. No one usually ever asked to help her first. She usually had to beg others relentlessly before they'd help her. And it was even more uncommon that folks would first ask her for help, so inevitably this made her actually excited about the prospect.

"Yeah, I am serious." he stated and leaned forward a bit, his features coming into a clearer view for her and it made her turn red just a bit being able to see some better details on his face.

"Okay sure." she finally stated. Serena probably should have been more suspicious of his offer to help but it wasn't like she believed herself to be under any threat. "Maybe we could find time this weekend to hang out and play catch up."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Jordan replied warmly and began to eat his lunch.

They talked about other things of course, movies, sports, politics, anything and everything before their lunch hours were over and they'd both have to run off to their next classes. It was actually turning back into a pleasant conversation again, which was good. By the end they even parted ways going to separate classes with a smile and a hand shake. The rest of the day went by fairly smoothly, the funk fog in her brain now having dissipated finally at the thought of getting help from an actual genuine guy who wanted an interest in her.

By this point, the familiar face of the Doctor entered the main hub of the college. It was as if there were signals all over the place in this facility. However, as he started to gauge, it was going to be like looking for a needle in a hay stack to try and find the direct link to what he was searching for. Frowning, he realized he was going to have to play it cooler here, and less out of the ordinary seeing as there were students still about. Luckily, most paid no mind to him. Perhaps it being a technical college, made him blending in a lot easier. Of course he had to start his search somewhere, and the library seemed like a good place to start. So over to the library he went.

From there, he continued to subtly search about, eventually going from classroom door to classroom door in hopes to locate his target. Sadly it was to no avail. For some reason all the signals seemed to be somehow muddling up within the walls of the college and locations inside it. He surmised it was because it was a busy place and he wasn't completely sure what he was quite looking for really. When he didn't find what he was looking for he went back to the main entrance and stood outside, trying to think, the wind whipping at his aged looking hair. Another dead end and more questions than answers. He watched as people left to go home and come in for later classes go by him, but it was like sitting in a stream with fish floating by there was no reason to care.

Yet that was the problem right there, he should have cared. Because there was one fish in the stream of nobodies, that stood out brighter than the rest. And one other fishy that was going to eat that bright colored fish if he didn't do something about it. That fish was Serena, and its predator was Jordan.

Jordan apparently had already been out in his car waiting, because when Serena walked out of the school, he ended up pulling up in his car just as if it weren't planned at all. She originally was going to try and catch the bus again as was per usual. Nothing of outstanding interest. However, the moment the car pulled up and the window rolled down and Jordan began to speak to Serena, is the same moment that the Doctor took notice to his device that was going crazy. It was here, outside. He stared at the screen then looked around at the parking lot. Nothing seemed familiar at first.

"Hey." Jordan called out. "Wanna lift?"

"Oh hey again." Serena blushed. "Yeah sure, beats taking the bus any day."

"Cool." He patted at the seat next to his. "Hop in."

Serena did just that, and as she did, it then hit the Doctor as his eyes crossed paths with Jordan's face finally, that he had found what he was looking for just as Serena closed the door behind her.

"No, no, no, no." he stated frantically to himself and then called out. "Hey! Hey wait!"

Jordan caught sight of the Doctor though and glared, rolling up the window. Serena looked over at him as he did that.

"Maybe we should see what he wants?" Serena offered.

"Nah it's probably just one of the professors or some older student trying to get someone else's attention. Don't worry about it." he stated quickly and began to drive off.

"Okay..." she stated putting her belt on, sort of not actually sure.

"Hey I got an idea, why don't you and I go hang out for a little while. Could go get something to eat maybe. What do you say?" Jordan said trying to deliberately distract her from the previous frantic calling Doctor who was trying to get her attention.

"Um..." she hesitated.

"Come on, I promise I won't make it weird or anything." he pleaded.

"Well..." she was so torn. A part of her needed to get back home to make sure her brother hadn't wrecked the place and she had homework to do on the other hand this guy was probably asking her on a date.

"I mean if it's too soon to hang out you know....I could always take you home." Jordan said, a wounded glance crossing over his features.

"Okay." she suddenly blurted out her heart sort of pounding in her chest. "Let's do it. Let's go hang out."

"Really?" his face went quickly from pathetic to glowing.

"Yeah really." she said, giving him a genuine smile. "Just...let me text my doofus brother. He's kinda in town for a while."

She opened the screen on her phone and sent out a text saying, Hey going out for a few hours with a friend I'll be back later tonight. She then let the phone go to black screen until her brother possibly responded if he wasn't busy doing something she should wonder about.

"Oh, is he someone I'll have to worry about pummeling me for taking there sister out for a dinner?" he teased a bit.

Is he cute?, was the response she got in text from her brother. She turned red as a beat before responding to him.

Shut up. I never said it was a he, she hastily texted back and then said, "Um, no. Hah, he's more like a chill cat. Just give him a bit of cat nip and he's good."

"Haha, sounds entertaining." Jordan jested. "I can only imagine."

"Yeah," she ran a hand through her hair as she brushed a strand out of her face. "Well, he'll be fine for at least a few hours without me. After all he did sort of show up uninvited and unannounced a bit."

"Well that doesn't seem very nice." Jordan stated giving her a glance as he drove.

"Not really, but he's my brother and I wouldn't replace the crazy numb nut for the world." Serena said with a chuckle.

"Fair enough. So, where would you like to go?" he asked.

"I don't know, there's not too many places to hang in town, at least none that I know of anyway." she admitted.

"True." Jordan agreed. "I think I know of a couple, but that depends on what you're into."

"You're asking me what I'm into," she laughed. "Bub, you're in for a whooper on that one. I pretty much like anything and everything food wise. So that won't make choosing any easier."

"Haha, okay well then, what are you craving. Like right now." he asked.

"Right now?" she mused. "Hmmm, good old fashion sit down. Like Tracy's. I'd say Fifth Street, but their closed after three p.m., which sucks to be honest because they got the best milkshakes. The only other place that could compete is Ford's drive in and ugh, they are the only place that makes green river soda milkshakes in town too! You can get the soda by the gallon I think at that. Quite a deal if you ask me. But Tracy's would be great as long as they're not closed too. They've been getting some funky hours themselves lately. That whole downtown area has pretty well gone to the dogs sadly, aside from bars."

"Huh, well if the food joints closed we could just get a simple drink or something and call it good." he stated. "No pressure necessary."

"Sure." Serena smiled.

"Great, we'll try Tracy's first, and if all else fails we can find a pub or bar so we can get a drink and maybe a snack at least." Jordan assured. They were now heading well into downtown after having crossed the big highway that burrowed through a good portion of the south side of the town. Two hundred also known as Tenth Avenue was only one of two major roads in or out of town. They, however, were headed down to Central. The place where the whole situation had originated from.

It wasn't like Serena knew. She like every other human being on the planet, was about as oblivious to what strange things could be around her as the next person. She was with Jordan, she believed she'd be just fine. Nothing out of the ordinary about a hook up. Luckily, Tracy's was open and they were able to go in and get themselves some food and a cup of coffee. They even continued to talk about classes and other casual things. What had been a very stressful day, had as far as Serena was concerned at the moment turned into a very pleasant afternoon out of the house. She just hoped her brother wouldn't cause chaos while she was out.

About almost an hour or two later of eating, drinking, and talking the time away; they both finally left the small diner together, both happy and full from they're meet up. Jordan gave her a casually wry smile before asking, "So, I can either take you home right away or we could sit in the car for a bit, maybe cruise around the area before I take you back."

"I don't mind sitting and vegging. After all it seems we have plenty of things to talk about." Serena mused.

"That we do." Jordan gave a short chuckle. "Well then my lady shall we head back to my noble steed –I mean car so we can veg as you say."

"Lead on, good sir." she said warmly. Her eyes that were already tired a bit from a day's hard work of strain, were now starting to droop from falling into a slight food coma. They went to the car, and he even opened the door for her. Getting in, she let herself just flop back in the seat as Jordan closed the door beside her. He then got in himself on the driver's side and closed the door behind him. The car now filled with a momentary silence.

Jordan had parked not too far from Tracy's, but it wasn't on the same black as it. They were still on central, just a few blocks down from where they were eating. The sky now dark, it was noticeable that people were now gone from the area. Work was over, and so most folks had already gone home. However, that didn't mean there wasn't anyone down there other than them. Just not as many. It was another few long moments of vegging status before Jordan finally spoke.

"You know," he began. "I think people have under estimated you."

"Hmm?" she said a bit dreamily looking out half opened eyes at him. "How's that?"

"You just, you're a totally different person face to face, than you are in school. You not as...distant, I guess." he offered with a shrug.

"I suppose that makes sense." she mused.

"You're livelier, chattier, and open ya know." Jordan rambled off.

"Glad to know." she said smiling before looking back out the front window. "I always thought I kinda sucked at socializing."

"Nah, to me you talk more like you've done it great for your whole life." he smirked.

"Oh now your just sucking up, I can tell." Serena said getting readjusted in her seat. "I always can tell, my brother does similar sucking up."

"Is that so? Does it still work though?" he mused.

"Eh, sure." she stated lightly. "I'm too full to argue it."

"Fair." he smirked. He then adjusted in his own seat. His body though, was more contorted to the side so he could look at her better. It was visible on his face at the moment that there might have been some genuine interest in Serena. However, after biting at his lower lip lightly in thought of what to do next, there seemed to have been a sudden not so noticeable change in his demeanor. Where a few seconds before he probably would have hesitated to ask what he was about to ask, he sure wasn't now.

"Hey Serena?" he began.

"Yeah?" she looked over at him again, her eyes open so she could stare into his gaze.

He just wanted her attention. Now that he had it, Jordan reached out to her face and began to stroke it before he then pulled her soft features towards himself to go in for what would be "the kill". But, this was no ordinary gesture of affection, because by the moment he got her lips right against his, the true intentions finally came to the forefront. Intimacy of such a fashion usually brought an instant eye lock, but where he thought he'd find a bond in her eyes, he did not. Something was wrong, and Jordan or at least what used to be Jordan, didn't know why. It just wasn't working. This could get very bad for him very quickly. Yet all the same it wasn't like she was pulling away, so he supposed that could make up for the lack of success.

As they parted lips finally though, the creature inside Jordan got worse, angrier. That was when Serena began to notice something was off about him, wrong. Where Jordan's eyes should have been, Serena could begin to see something glowing where they should be, but it was highly unfocused because of her visual acuity. He then began to make a sound that possibly could have been speech, but came out in sounds of clicks and screech's instead, his mouth opening in a very odd elongated sort of way, leaving the inside of his mouth to seem like a disappearing black hole of an abyss, like something straight out of the movie Legion. Even his features began to transform a bit. This made her already back away from him, her heart racing fast.

"J-j-jordan!" she cried out almost is a whispered squeak that should have been more a scream. Without looking she had already been trying to look for the door handle with one hand, and her bag with the other. She wanted so bad to get out of there.

Before either knew it though, the door on the passenger side of Jordan's car was wretched open and Serena, who luckily didn't have a belt on since they hadn't gone anywhere yet, was yanked from the car forcefully by some unknown assailant.

"Let go of me!" she flailed wildly at whoever grabbed her out of the car. It was too dark to tell the features of who had grabbed her, but she could in her rushed moment of fear, tell that they were definitely taller than her, and a bit bigger in build, but not by much. She could hear the door close with a slam even as Jordan had cried out a "Hey!" to them both.

She could tell that she was pulled a few feet away from the car, her bag from school shoved into her arms before the hand that had been closer to her elbow that had pulled her was now set on one of her shoulders while another was set on her other shoulder.

"Are you alrigh'?" a thick, and maybe familiar voice spoke out in a harsh tone to her. "Did he hurt you? Tell me! Did he hurt you?!"

"N-no!" she squeaked out in confusion.

"Are you sure? You're not feeling funny, off, a bit odd?" the man inquired.

"Y-y-yes, I'm sure. Please, just let me go. I can give you whatever you want, just don't hurt me." Serena said palely. She then heard the car turn on and rev up.

"Ahhhhhh! No you don't!" the heavy Scottish brogue man cried out in frustration as he looked over at the car then back at her. "Stay here! Got it!"

All she could do was nod before he went running down the street after the car a bit, hoping to catch it before it could speed up through a light. Alas the light he was hoping that would be red, wasn't. And even with his device he had on hand to meddle with the control of it, it still had not turned red in time. This made The Doctor sigh in frustration before he make a quip one eighty back to where Serena was. Which surprisingly she did just as he said. She could have ran, but a part of her was too terrified for one, and for two, it was dark out. She wouldn't have known her way home from how disoriented she was.

She jumped when he came back up to her on her blind side. She looked down, scared that whomever had taken her, was possibly dangerous. A part of her even flinched when a hand gently touched under her chin and raised up her face to look at him. It had been noticeable now that she had been actually crying from the shock of it all.

"Hey, hey now. Don't cry, I can't stan' cryin'. Breaks me inside you see." The Doctor said more softly now. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just-"

He didn't know if he could explain it to her. Honestly he didn't even know how she managed to get out of that situation in one piece. From his angle, he sure had thought she'd been toast by the creature that was inside Jordan. Yet somehow she survived, but how?

"It's very complicated." he finally managed. "I actually though' you might have been in real danger."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't." she spat back a bit, not intestinally, but it came out that way anyway.

"Okay, I deserve that." he offered, putting his hands in his pockets to try and show he was no threat. He couldn't tell that she couldn't actually see that to tell he was.

"I was fine until you, whoever you are, showed up and scared the ever living daylights out of me." Serena managed, a bit of a fiery spirit returning to her. "You know, for a possible thief or a robber you're really bad at it."

"Wha?" The Doctor scoffed. "You think I'm a- oh heavens! No! I am not a thief! Or a robber. Or anything else related to illicit activity! I genuinely thought you were in trouble!"

"Yes, well now I have no way home." she bit out bitterly, still just from fear.

"Look I'm sorry, 'ow many times do I 'ave to say it!" The Doctor looked to the sky exasperatedly.

"I don't know." she mumbled a bit afraid still of his brazen voice. Scottish people were loud. At least that was the impression she was getting right now.

"Okay, look, if I help get you a ride, will you please forgive me for the mistake?" he pleaded with her.

"Yeah, I supposed." Serena nodded.

"Great! Now, do you have any money, 'cause uh, I don't exactly carry spare cash or card around." The Doctor cringed a bit as clapped his hands together, his bushy brows furrowing.

"I think so, a bit." she frowned, most of her money had been spent on lunch and she usually only carried enough around for the bus usually.

"Well if not, we'll see if someone inside a place might be able to spare you a ride or at least money for one." he offered. "Though I forgot to ask, do you have a phone? We could try and call an uber or a cab or something first?"

"Yeah." she stated taking her phone out, but when she tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't. It was as if the battery was dead or sapped of energy. She could have sworn she had charged it, but to no avail it wouldn't turn on no matter what.

"Ughhhhh, damn it!"

"What?"

"The things dead, as in R.I.P. I need a charger at best stat dead." she groaned.

"Ah, no matter, we can still do the other thing instead." he stated, his voice still hopeful.

"Okay." she nodded, clinging the bag more to her chest. She flinched again when he had put a hand gently on her shoulder once more to comfort her a bit and to turn her to lead her in the right direction to somewhere where they could get her a ride, but he didn't pull away even if she was sure he had thought about it with how the pressure changed against her shoulder blade a few times.

Eventually they had made it to a bar in the area. It was across the street of Central, but at least it was in walking distance. The Doctor lightly urged her to go inside before looking both ways down the sidewalk himself then darting in behind her. He wasn't quite fond of bars, at least not dive ones like this, but at least he could help her get a ride this way and get her out of the open from Jordan possibly returning for her.

He walked up to the bar with her and waited for a tender to come over and help them. The air in the place made The Doctor slightly uneasy, but it could have been worse, it could have been still back outside facing Jordan. Though in his case, he'd rather have been doing that, than being in a bar any day. Finally a tender came over to them while putting a bottle away on a self.

"Hey, how can I help ya?" the man behind the bar asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could help my friend here. Her phones dead and she needs to get a ride home. I'd uh, give her a lift but, ya know....i don't have a car myself you see. So yeah if you wouldn't mind helping a poor lady get a safe ride home I'd be very appreciative."

"Sure." the tender stated. "Not a problem."

As the tender walked off, The Doctor glanced over to Serena who was already frantically digging through her bag for any spare money she might have had left over from lunch. Unfortunately, what she was able to dredge up wasn't quite enough to cover the cab. At least not in cash form. She could have used her card, but she wasn't sure how much she had on it at the moment. Her mind was too frazzled about the situation that had just happened.

"You doin' alright?" The Doctor asked with genuine concern.

"Yeah, just...not enough change." she brooded with a sigh. "Might just have to charge the card instead. Oh well. I don't like using the card, try to keep it for emergencies only, but I guess this counts as an emergency."

"I'd say." the elder man stated leaning against the bar while waiting. Serena looked over at him, trying to gauge his face, but the bar much like outside was just too dark to fully tell features clearly. However, a part of her thought he might have been smiling, not cruelly, but fondly at her. At least she could tell that he was an older gentleman, who seemed to have a very strong possible Scottish background.

"So um, about earlier...." she began.

"Yes?" he raised a brow at her.

"Just wanted to say, I'm sorry." She confessed honestly, now that her heightened fears were starting to slowly subside a bit. The man before her still scared her, but she wasn't in freak out panic mode anymore. "I didn't mean it."

"I know." was all that he said.

"You know? How? I wasn't exactly kind tempered." she stated.

"You're not the first person who's ever gotten cross or hot headed around me." The Doctor stated with a short laugh, remembering back fondly at his past.

"I just, I guess I used the fear I had already started to get with Jorden out on you." Serena stated. "And it wasn't fair."

"Oh?" curious as to what she had meant.

"Yeah. What I saw..." she took a hard gulp in as the images came back to her mind.

"What did you see?" The Doctor asked, a bit concerned now.

"Something happened. He...he somehow changed. Like, his eyes." Serena gestured to her own eyes as she spoke. "I think he, well you're not going to probably believe me, but I think his eyes glowed a bit. And I swore, I swore I saw his mouth open wide up in an unnatural fashion, like a snake, when it unhinges its jaw. It was horrifying. I swear I wasn't hallucinating. I don't do drugs. Gods, why am I even telling you this, you probably are thinking I'm plain out nuts."

"You're not crazy." he stated.

"Oh? How do you know?" she asked. "You weren't there."

"No, but I can't see you being dishonest in a situation as such." he offered. "Plus, I've seen things, things you couldn't possibly imagine. But really I am glad you're safe. Even more so now than ever."

"Okay." she scoffed mockingly a bit as she shoved some things back into her bag, not convinced that he didn't believe she was not some nutter. She watched as the man turned back to the bar impatiently, hoping the tender would arrive soon. In The Doctors opinion he was still not really great with domestic affairs. She wondered who he was, and thought maybe she should ask, but before she could the tender in favor of the The Doctor, arrived to give them word on the cab.

"Alright a cab's been called they should be here in about ten to fifteen minutes." the tender stated.

"That's wonderful." The Doctor said a bit more lightly than he had been. Apparently feeling accomplished at helping her get a way home safely.

"Yay." Serena added tiredly.

"Either of you want a drink in the meantime?" the tender asked.

"Water will be fine." The Doctor stated.

"Same." Serena stated, wanting to feel sober as possible.

The tender went and grabbed them both some water and brought it back promptly. The two of them sat there drinking their waters awkwardly.

"So?" Serena asked.

"So?" The Doctor mirrored.

"I never got your name. Mines Serena." she stated, hoping to get his.

"I," he wasn't sure if he should give out his true identity at the moment or not. Though, there was nothing else he could really go by except his John alias, but he didn't want to do that really. "I am The Doctor."

Serena almost choked on her water and nearly spit it back out when she tried to not die from inhaling it, "Yeah right! And I'm a space princess! Really? Who are you?"

"I just told you." he stated, his voice more serious now.

"No, The Doctor is a fictional character in a tv series. The Doctor cannot be real." she stated and then muttered. "As much as that would be the most awesome thing in the universe."

She couldn't believe it, because she couldn't see that he really was who he said he was.

"But I am!" he breathed softly too her. The comment about him clearly confused him for a moment, but after a second of thought, it began to become clearer to him. He wasn't in his own universe, somehow.

"And like I said, I'm a space princess named Leia." she scoffed a bit.

"Look, I can tell you don't believe me," he had a pleading look on his face. "At least believe this, what you saw, was real. Okay. I know you probably think I'm lying but I'm not."

"No I think you're crazy. Probably right now more crazy than even me." she stated, still not quite believing him. "You're a right mad man you know that."

"Never said I wasn't." he accepted. "Never said I was either. But that's beside the point right now."

"Oh really." she raised a brow of her own at him. "Okay....Doctor....if that really is even who you are. Where's you're TARDIS, and why couldn't you just have taken me home via it hmmm?"

"I-well....," he started a bit flustered by her forthright nature just now. "It's here! Well...not here, here. But it's around! And moreover, it's not quite in walking distance right now. Otherwise, maybe I would have."

"Uh huh....right." she shook her head at him. This guy was all sorts of loon as far as she was concerned. She decided at that point to shoulder her bag and then down her water in almost one go before getting off the stool to leave.

"Well Doctor." she snorted. "I think I'm going to go wait for my ride outside now."

She began to walk away from him and the bar, but was stopped by a hand to her elbow. Her gaze turned back to The Doctor in a "please let me just go" fashion. The look on his face was a pained one though. One that he'd only given to people like Clara or Amy or any one of his other companions. That look of fear that only barely shows through his eyes and lips, a war torn tired caring afraid stare he'd not just share with just any random person, but one he'd started to come to actually like.

"Don't." he stated bluntly. "Just don't."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"That's not good enough excuse mister." Serena said wearily. "I really should go."

"Because he could come back." The Doctor stated honestly. "I have no idea what that being is like that has ahold of your friends body, it could be relentless can return for you when it thinks things are safe again."

"Jordan....he's not my friend." she stated, her cheeks a bit hot.

"Okay boyfriend." The Doctor snarked a bit.

"He's not my boyfriend either!" she said in a bit of a higher tone voice than she expected.

"Does it really matter?" he huffed in irritation a bit.

"No I suppose not, but still, why should I believe you? You just claimed yourself to be the Doctor!" she jabbed.

"Because I am! If going by John Smith or Basil or some other name instead will help you, so be it! But I am who I say I am!" The Doctor blustered, his Scottish brogue coming out heavier than before. Honestly he really wasn't mad. In fact he was glad she questioned him, it meant she was paying attention. It didn't mean he couldn't still be frustrated about it though. Inevitably it made him sigh. "But I mean it, unless the cab's out there, you really shouldn't leave yet. You don't have to believe that I am who I say I am, but you can't go out there blindly not believing that what you saw did not happen. I can see it in your face. The fear actually is still there. I promise you, it's true. At least let me look before you go leaping back out there."

"Is there a problem over here?" the tender asked as he came over while still working.

"No." they both said at the same time and then looked at each other again, their gazes both firm on each other even if Serena couldn't see The Doctors features. The tender shrugged and walked back off.

"Fine." Serena stated, readjusting her pack on her back.

"Thank you." he breathed deeply and let it out.

"Your still mad." she commented.

"Yes," he had to freely admit. "Yes I am."

The Doctor was sure there had been enough time between the call and now for the cab to show he was sure. Unless the service was backed up. Downing his own water, he got up and walked to the door to poke his head out to see if the cab had arrived. At first it had looked like the cab wasn't there, but then a few moments later a car rolled up with a big sign on it declaring it was a cab. The Doctor was very relieved by this. He pulled his head back inside and looked at her, "Alright, you're in luck, it just arrived."

"About time." she stated. "I should be getting home anyway. My brothers going to be wondering what I've gotten up to. Especially now that my phones dead."

"Right." he agreed. "Well, good luck, be safe, and try to stay out of any further danger. Especially Jordan. I don't know if I'll be able to rescue you next time."

"I can take care of myself. I'm good at that." she tried to pass off, it was her internalizing that made her that way.

"Clearly." The Doctor this time was not the convinced one. He still didn't know how she escaped and that bugged him, badly. It was like an itch at the back of his mind that he wanted to find out. There didn't seem to be anything special about her in any way. So what gave?

"See ya around space case." she said giving a bit of a laugh.

He helped by opening the cab door for her, checked inside just in case to make sure not another one of those things was riding the driver. He then just realized, he was going to have to walk back to the TARDIS if he didn't get a ride as well. It would mean more time with Serena, but a part of him actually didn't mind.

"Wait, maybe I should get a ride too." he piped up holding the door. "I mean, I'll have to walk myself otherwise to where I need to go, and it's quite a ways from here to be honest."

"I guess I could spend a few more minutes with your daft face." Serena stated. It was of no consequence to the driver, they'd get paid either way. "Come on, get in."

He gave a half smile and then got in, in the back himself. The cab then took off, luckily in the right direction already. The driver asked for an address. Serena gave hers first, but then The Doctor quipped in that he needed to be dropped off in the park with the plane that was suspended in the air at one of its corners. The driver stated that, that was Lions Park.

This made Serena raise a brow. Was this guy a homeless dude? It made her wonder. To be dropped off in a park seem suspicious. She could see now possibly why he'd not give his real name in her mind. It still didn't make things any less strange though that he'd get dropped off in a park. It was almost Star Trek fourth movie of him. Maybe he really was The Doctor and his TARDIS was parked there. It made her shake her head to think she could believe such nonsense.

The moment the car stopped at the park and The Doctor opened the door to get out, she also too wanted to get out for some reason. Did this guy really have that sort of effect on her? Was she really that stupid to want to try and follow this mysterious man back to wherever it was he was going? She had to be mad herself.

"Goodbye, and good luck Serena." The Doctor stated before fully getting out of the car and then closing the door behind him. A part of him almost sounded like a wounded puppy when he'd said that. A wounded, lonely, scared puppy who just seemed to only want friendship in such a dark universe. It actually made Serena's heart hurt a bit inside as she sat there and watched The Doctor swiftly move away from the car and into the depths of the park. She was about to just let the best thing to ever happen in her life go like it never existed. What was wrong with her?!

Sadly there had been no time for her to bolt from the cab herself to chase after him. Instead she was left putting her hand up to the window and pressed it there, staring at her frowning reflection in the window as the car pulled away from the park. If he really was The Doctor, would she even ever see him again? A part of her wondered. This was not how she'd expected her day to end, not like this.


	7. The Doctors In

The moment that Serena got home, she had rummaged through her bag to get her card out of her wallet. However, she had totally derped that the cab in town didn't take card, cash only. This made her sigh with frustration because she didn't have enough on hand to pay the cab, she'd have to go into the home to get some more dollars. Apologizing profusely, she got out of the cab and said she'd be back in just a minute. She then dashed to the door and went inside.

What she heard as she walked in though, was not something she was expecting, nor wanted to discover. The hot mess sounds of passion pinged her ears as she barely could see in the dimmed down light two figures. One she knew the figure to be her brother and another, probably someone Ash knew. Instinctively she covered her eyes whether she could see details or not. She knew what had been transpiring, and now more than ever, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Oh crap!" Ash cried out, spooked by her sudden entrance. "Um, hi...Serena."

"Hi." she replied slowly as she let her bag drop to the floor near the door.

"I, uh, you remember my friend Chris from high school right? He just, um, came over to watch some Netflix with me, yeah." Ash tried to cover, hoping she had saw nothing, grateful for both of them having limited sight.

"Yeah, right, I don't wanna know. I got to go get some emergency cash for the cab." Serena replied, a bit rushed, her hand still over her eyes until she turned away and just rushed to the back bedrooms to grab some stashed money from a separate drawer than her jar to pay the ride. It wasn't money she really could afford to use, because well it was supposed to be left alone, but she had no choice. She could have cared less at the second about Ash's exploits.

Meanwhile, still within earshot of Serena, Ash asked Chris, "Hey babe, have you seen my pants?"

The two boys looked about in the dim room while Serena fished out the money and dashed back out through the front living room.

"Now where ya going?" Ash asked Serena, just a bit dumbly.

"I told you, to go pay the cab! I can't just go walking out through the wall!" she stated sharply.

"Haven't you ever heard of plastic?" Ash inquired.

"They only take cash here." she offered up, just a tad irritated and then dashed out the door to go pay the cabby.

"Oh, right." Ash stated. "Small town nowhere Montana. Forgot. Lame."

"I should probably go dude." Chris piped up finally to Ash.

"Yea, unfortunately, before my sister kills me, or you for that matter." he stated, getting his things together and back on once more.

Outside Serena slipped the proper amount to the cab driver and then apologized again before backing away from the cab window. As she watched the car drive away, Chris came dipping out of her home, ready to head out himself. She glanced over at him as he left. He gave her a small wave and a weak smile before he scrambled his embarrassed face into his own car and drove off, leaving her alone in the dark.

Pursed lipped, she wandered back inside, closed the door, and then slumped down to the floor against the door for a moment out of exhaustion. The only thing she could tell now, was that the lights were once more back on. Soft, but bright enough to illuminate the room.

"Welcome back?" Ash prodded, hoping she wasn't upset with him for having a friend over.

"Ugh." she groaned.

"That bad?" he asked, feeling maybe a bit more confident she wasn't going to murder him on the spot. "Weren't you supposed to be out with someone? Some guy?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." she stated putting her head on her knees as she drew them up to her chest, her arms hugging around them as she sat there, tired and weary.

Ash debated on whether he should go over and comfort her, or stay where he was and have a better chance she'd not claw him or slap him or something. As he tilted his head a bit in hopeful curiosity, he asked her the question that would be the moment of truth.

"You mad at me?" he bit at his lower lip, waiting for a reply.

"No." she said in a muffled tone, head still down.

"Are you okay?" he inquired next.

"No." she answered again.

"Do I need to kick somebodies ass for you?" he asked.

"No." again muffled response.

"Do you need a hug?" Ash asked hoping for anything other than another no. There was a moment of silence and then came from her a muffled, "Yes."

He sighed and walked over to her. Crouching down next to her he gave her a big hug. Reactively Serena hugged back and sort of began to cry a bit again.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked. "Come on, you know you can talk to me. I may be a butt head in your eyes sometimes, but I'm at least your butt head."

That made her laugh a little bit as she nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Though, I don't think the floor is exactly a good place for us to play therapist." he mused and then helped her up. "A couch would be much better, er. If what happened earlier doesn't bother you."

"No." she stated. "I mean it's disturbing, but eh. Could be worse."

Which to be honest what she had gone through this particular night was. She'd just experienced something out of this world. What was worse, how was she going to explain it to Ash. She had at least a few moments to mull it over as they moved to the couch.

"Alright then! Doctor Ash Badass MD on duty!" Ash chuckled just a bit hoping that would at least bring her spirits up.

"Smart ass is more like it." Serena snorted as the two of them sat down.

"Hey now! Better a smart ass than a dumb ass. Keep that up though, and I won't help." he stated, but then could feel instinctively the wounded look she was giving him. "Oh I'm kidding! Geez....whatever it was it must have been pretty bad."

"Mmhmm, it kinda was." she agreed.

"Well, since I'm not quite a mind reader, tell me what happened after you sent me that text." he stated, getting all into his role a bit.

Sitting for a moment, Serena thought about how to word the whole situation. It wasn't like she could just out right tell him she had met a monster in disguise. A part of her honestly just wanted to believe that the whole ordeal was just some strange fever dream she had gotten and that what had happened just was some byproduct of it somehow. She was about to start when Ash spoke up again.

"Ready when you are...whenever you're done playing around with your whosey mawhatsits thingies you're so fond of." Ash rambled off sitting back into the couch to get comfy.

"Huh?" she stated raising a brow.

"You know, you're nerd toys. Doctor....whatever?" he stated like a noob.

"Oh! It's Doctor Who, and I'm not playing with anything." she stated, her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Oh, thought you were. Cause it sure sounded like that one noisy box thing you play with sometimes that make electronic whoopey sounds." he continued.

"Whoopey? Seriously, whoopey. Gods what planet you from, Dorktonia? Whoopey....," she shook her head. "Seriously though, I'm not playing with anything. I didn't have enough time to grab something. You've been right here."

"You know who says things like that, uber nerds! Planet Dorktonia....meh. Eh never mind, I must have been hearing things from another unit. Sorry, go on." Ash ushered. As much as he thought she was an uber nerd, she was beginning thinking ultra noob in return.

"Well, um, actually-" she began, but then was cut off by a resounding knock at her door. Who the hell could have that been at a time like this? She hadn't expected anyone, unless Ash had been. Serena looked at Ash.

"You expecting?" she asked.

"No." Ash looked just as baffled as her.

Another knock.

"Probably should go answer it anyway." she stated, feeling a bit nervous. What if Jorden had found her?

"Yea, be careful though, it is getting late." he replied, having heard a tense sense of doubt in her voice.

"True." she raised a brow. "Think I should grab something just in case?"

"Ahhhh, you know what, maybe I should go answer it after all." Ash stated, getting up.

"You sure."

"Yea."

Ash went to the door, grabbing his cane from nearby just in case before opening it. He didn't want to say it to his sisters face that the real reason he wanted to go to the door was not because it was getting late or getting dark, it was because he could tell she was well out of sorts and he didn't think she could handle it right now with how shook up she seemed to sound. Serena in the meantime went into the kitchen to hide out for a bit. There was a third knock at the door before Ash yanked it open, his cane though folded up, was ready to strike at will.

"Whoa! Ho! Ho there lad!" a familiar Scottish brogue accent cried out, hands up in the air ready to defend. "I'm not 'ere to 'urt ya. I was, um, just lookin' to stop by."

Ash blinked a moment, lowering the cane a bit reluctantly. The voice sounded like one he'd heard recently, but at the moment he couldn't put a finger on who, not realizing that the person before him, was the same bloke at the café. Out of shock though he fell more into a sarcastic mode.

"Well you stopped, thanks for stopping by, adios amiego." he shut the door in the silvery haired man's face. Before Ash could say anything or walk away there was a knock, again. Ash opened the door once more.

"We don't want any of your aged version of Boy Scout cookies." Ash snarked and tried to shut the door hoping this dude would get the point, but before he could, a hand stopped the door from shutting. Aged eyes stared at a dumbfounded Ash.

"Really, can I please come in? I need to speak to Serena." The Doctor stated, his voice fairly serious.

"Shouldn't you be, I don't know, younger?" Ash stated, confusing The Doctor for Serena's date.

"What?" The Doctor raised a brow.

"Serena, your boyfriends looking for you?" he commented over his shoulder and then looked at The Doctor. "If you hurt my sister in any way, so help me....I have no problem using this."

He showed The Doctor the cane again, waving it in front of the aged man's face before lowering it back to his side once more. He really shouldn't have trusted him. He really, really shouldn't, but for some odd and bizarre reason, he found himself having his "ashy senses" tingling. So he was a nerd, sort of, too. That to him was beside the point. All he knew was that he somehow, for some reason just by The Doctors source of words alone drew him to trust the elder man. However, at the same time, he still felt justified to wave the cane in the man's face just in case. After all, this was his sister he was talking about.

Serena had listened in on the conversation, and froze a bit when she heard that familiar thick accent. Her mind was now just blown into a billion pieces to scatter on the wind. In the time it took her to get back home, there should have been no way for him to reach her. Plus to top that off, he really shouldn't have known where she lived. So a part of her did pale just a bit. Another big question was, why was he here? Hadn't things been sorted out between them at the bar prior?

"Apparently she doesn't want to see you." Ash spoke up when Serena didn't show herself right away.

"Ah." The Doctor tried to interject, but the door was again closed in his face.

"Sigh, let him in." Serena stated deflated. There was going to be some very strange "music" they were going to both have to face, especially her. This was going to be more difficult than she'd expected. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, The Doctor was in, and he wanted to see her.


	8. The Reality of Things

Ash looked from the wild haired man to Serena, back to the man at the door, before he finally stepped aside and let him in.

"Thank you." The Doctor stated with his brogue.

His slender, well dressed presence, filled the room with a sort of charged power almost. At least that was what Serena began to feel as he entered. A part of her still could not believe it. How was it possible? Yet the sheer fact he was there, that he had decided not to abandon her after all, just made her heart race none the less.

"How did you..." she stated trailing off.

"Find you?" he finished. "Easy. Just a bit of look up, then a hop skip and a jump, and well you know the rest."

"What do you mean?" Serena asked tilting her head a bit to the side. A part of her knew the real answer, but somewhere deep inside her, she wanted him to answer the question just for the sheer fact of wanting results.

"I mean I came here in my TARDIS." he stated coolly. "How else. It's not like the bus system here seems to be reliable. I'd have been waiting an eternity at that rate."

"Wait, don't tell me you picked up a nerd Ser." Ash poked.

"First of all." Serena picked up a pillow and threw it at Ash. "He's not my boyfriend okay!"

"Geez! Okay okay!" Ash squeaked getting hit in the side with the pillow before it dropped to the floor.

"Second of all," she had to stop for a moment to think of a good answer, her brain froze though. "He ended up saving my ass from the guy who I was hanging out with. So, so be nice. Got it."

"Alright, fine." Ash sighed, but then smirked a bit. "So is 'TARDIS' lingo for tight ass ride driving intense speeds?"

"You could say something like that." The Doctor stated, one side of his lip curling up into a smile. A very awkward you're an idiot aren't you sort of smile, but also well you may be an idiot but I like your style kind of smile as well. The raised expressive brows honestly said it all.

"Okay, maybe he's not too bad." Ash stated and walked to go sit down. As he plopped into the chair he asked, "So, who is your friend anyway?"

Oh boy, the one question Serena didn't want to answer, the one that would make her brother think she was a loon job. After all in their world, The Doctor was only but a fiction character on a two dimensional film reel. But before she could even speak up, The Doctor did.

"I'm The Doctor." he announced like clockwork.

Serena just went pale because she knew Ash was going to not be quite bright about asking the next question. The one that all people asked. She knew he was going to fall into the trap. However, a part of her didn't know whether to face palm about it or just laugh her ass off.

"Doctor?" Ash stated. "Doctorrrrr.....who exactly?"

And there it was, out in the open for all to see. She sort of moan laughed at him as she did face palm. This was going to be a long night she was certain. If The Doctor really was who he said he was, then he'd not mind her brewing up tea or something for them to drink because she was going to need it at this rate.

"I'm....going to get us some drinks." she stated, avoiding Ash's obvious question herself, as her gaze turned to The Doctor. "Would you like anything?"

"Tea or coffee would be fine." The Doctor stated as he went and found a chair to sit in himself.

"Seriously though, who are you?" Ash asked again.

"I told you, I'm The Doctor, just the Doctor." he stated dryly, clearly used to the rhetorical of the questions. "Honestly I met you both at that coffee shop down the way."

"No." Ash stated elongating the no while in disbelief. "Can you believe this Ser, he actually thinks he's that Doctor fella from that show you watch you know. Doctor What...no....Doctor Strange....no that's a comic....Doctor Thing.....no that just sounds like some horror B film......hmmm....Doctor Whoseymawhatsits. That thing with that blue box that goes wheeooo through some trippy swirly thingy all the time."

"It's Doctor Who!" she stated, her cheeks flushing, as she called from the kitchen while she started up a pot of hot water. She preferred the stove over the micro any day. Hotter water meant better tea or coffee.

"Oh right yeah that." He stated a bit embarrassed by not knowing, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh wait! I remember now! You're the dude I said should get their heart check! You still really should. It kinda sounds off...you know a little like this."

He began to tap out a rhythm on the coffee table. The one that was all too familiar of one, two, three, four with a pause in between and then repeated in a sort of semi rapid repetition. The Doctor got up a bit, reached over the table, and put a thin fingered hand over Ash's to make him stop, "Don't."

"Why?" Ash asked.

"Because." The Doctor stated firmly.

"Because...why?" Ash retorted.

"Because I said so. So please, I'd rather you not." he stated, gently squeezing Ash's hand as his piercing gaze stared at Ash's blank one, hoping the boy would understand.

"Okay, okay." Ash agree seeming to understand The Doctors tone of voice. "Didn't mean to upset you."

"It's quite alright." The Doctor stated, letting go of Ash's hand and sitting back down. "I can tell you actually why it's like that. It's because there are two. I have two hearts. But how you could even hear that, that intrigues me."

"Just really good hearing I guess." Ash shrugged with a skeptical look about the doctor having two hearts. "Comes with the territory I suppose."

The Doctor finally gave a weird look as if a deep thought had hit him, as he shifted his gaze at them both, mostly at Ash though. It was like the time lord had been struck in the face with a ginormous snowball.

"Wait, say that again?" The Doctor asked.

"What?" Ash gave a confused look. "The part about me finding it funny and ironic you think you're the guy from that tv show? Or the fact that I could hear supposedly two hearts? Is that a defect or something?"

"Yeah tha'. Well both questions actually." he replied. "You're telling me I'm fiction? And I am curious how you can hear something so subtle. You're not alien yourself are you?"

"Yeah, I'm clearly a Xenomorph," Ash rolled his eyes. "Also, I don't make up the stuff just hear It. Besides shouldn't you know by now, seeing as you have supposedly some sort of technology that can locate my sister?"

The Doctor just sat there staring at him with an "are you sassing me?" expression. Ash continued though. "Honestly, I wish some days I was an alien. Then I could be a bad ass rock star in space. Instead of being stuck here as an average human on a rock. There's nothing special about me. I just have good hearing because it's the sense that heightened due to lack of sight. My sisters got vision loss too."

That made the Doctors eyes go wide with curiosity. He'd never really dealt with too many disabled people in his journeys, but the ones he had crossed were somehow always brilliant. However, that acute of hearing was over and bounds extraordinary. Almost psychic he mused, and that made him wonder. Could this boy actually be a real life psychic? It apparently wasn't his world after all so why not. Maybe they were more prevalent in this universe.

"I was busy focused on other things." he tried to defend. He could have checked but the pressing matter took more of his thoughts than the where he was issue. "Also don't short change yourself, apparently you have quite a gift there."

"That's what I tell him!" Serena called from the kitchen, she had gotten the water going and had started working on something for them to even eat.

"Uh, okay." Ash stated, still not sure what to make of the strange man.

"As for my hearts, no, they are not a defect. That's my biology. I'm a time lord." The Doctor stated.

"You don't sound alien though." Ash stated.

"And you don't sound Gallifreyan so there we are." The Doctor snarked.

"Fair." Ash shifted a bit uncomfortably, then looked down at his stomach. "Man I got the munchies bad."

"Would you like some food?" Serena inquired to the other room just coincidentally the same time Ash made his comment.

"Course I would," Ash mewled pathetically. "You ain't gonna deny a dude sustenance just because their recreational interests are ya?"

It was no wonder why Ash seemed so chill about the whole situation so far and wasn't freaking out. Him and his friend had been doing recreational things that Serena really didn't think was a good idea he should be doing, but who was she to argue. He was a big boy he could adult if he really wanted to. He just didn't want to and that was the frustrating part. Even The Doctor glanced him a weary look of worry. At least he cared about him to that degree even though they only just met. However, as he was getting to know them more and more, he was starting to see more and more of their timelines, who they had been, who they were, and who they could possibly be one day. This tugged deeply at The Doctor instinctively. Alien issue or not, he was meant to meet these two and help them as well somehow. Maybe this was a good start.

"I wasn't asking you dummy!" Serena teased. "I know what you want. I was asking our guest."

"Ah, sure." The Doctor piped up. He still wasn't always comfortable with the domestics that humans had. He was better than he had been. Three regenerations ago he would have been as antsy as a person on fire instead of sitting and enjoying the time he was somewhere. The war had really screwed him up, but the friends he'd kept over the years, his companions, they saved him from that downward spiral he almost fell into.

"Alright, I'll be back in there in a minute, the waters almost steeped." she commented.

The room had gone awkward for a few moments. This allowed for The Doctor to look around and take in his surroundings. The place was nice, well decorated, but not cluttered. It was definitely homey. He did note, however, outside of casual paintings on the walls; that there was a lot of fandom art. Everything from Star Wars it looked like to My Little Pony and everything else in between. Some of it looked like posters, but others looked like hand art done either traditionally or digitally. As his gaze scanned the room, it even came across a poster of the TARDIS in a splash montage of different people faded around it. One of them being him. Not his current him, but a past him. Such likeness, it was sort of creepy.

It made him tear away his gaze eventually with how uncomfortable it made him. Sure he was one to brag about himself, but this was a bit overkill. However, it hit the nail on the head that he really wasn't in "Kansas" anymore. Now it wasn't just a quick milk run to deal with these aliens, but now it was going to be a fight to get back to his universe, even if that were possible at this rate. The gap for that might have already closed, and The Doctor might actually have to face that fact. Folding his hands together so they'd interlock, he looked down at the floor for a moment in thought, then looked back up at Ash.

"So, your sight, I see now why you don't make eye contact. You can't I assume. Hence why you didn't recognize me at the door from being the same fellow you saw at the café. I really am sorry."

"Hey dude, it's not big. Everyone does it." Ash brushed off.

"Yes well, I'm not everyone. It was rude of me." The Doctor stated in honesty.

"Thanks." Ash said giving a small smile. "Sorry I'm such an ass. When I get like this I get weird. To be honest, I'm surprised I'm not freaking out on you. Guess there's something about you. I just can't quite figure out what."

He was a good lad, The Doctor was beginning to see this. He cared about his sister, and that was important. He'd not felt that sort of "fam" feeling in a while himself, and so to see it so strong here was almost heartwarming to his more rough incarnation. What the kid probably sensed, because as it was well pointed out, it didn't exist here, was the energy that was him as a time lord. The Doctor was known to send out this "trust me" energy that made it hard for most to say no to him. Sometimes he was thankful for it, other times he realized it made people stupid around him and reckless. Which at that point he hated it and it would make him frustrated and mad when he couldn't change those around him minds.

"I have that effect on people." The Doctor admitted. "You're not the first."

"Okay, so I have tea, some crackers and cheese, a veggie tray, and some rolls I heated up with butter and honey on them." Serena stated.

"Yush!" Ash drooled almost.

"Wonderful." The Doctor said warmly, sending Serena a smile, but then remembered she might not be able to see it either. Such a shame. Not to be able to see such beauty in the world. It almost broke his hearts. He had to find a way to show a sign of affection of gratitude somehow for her being so kind. So instinctively he reached out to her arm, gently grabbed at the wrist and then let it slide down to her hand before she could fully pull away after setting down the food and drink. Which by the way in his mind was amazing she could carry both at once, not even sighted folk could always do that with grace.

"Really, thank you." he stated his brogue lighter than usual because of how gently he was trying to speak.

"For what?" she raised a brow.

"For...being kind." he replied and squeezed her hand. "You've been through a lot today."

"Your welcome." she stated, her face turning a tad red, but she didn't pull away. She could tell by the way he was speaking, and by how close she was that he was smiling at her, which made her smile back.

The Doctor then let go of her hand and began to reach for food and grab a cup of tea. Ash had already started devouring the food himself with no interest in having waited for the others, too hungry to care. The Doctor watched as Serena sat finally herself before taking a sip of tea. Surprised by its strong flavor, The Doctor raised his bushy brows in shock a bit then looked deep into the teas depths, intrigued by its dark color.

"This is good." he mused then set the cup down. "So, um, down to the reason why I came looking for you Serena."

"Yeah, why did you come back here? I saw you get out at the park down the way. I didn't think I'd see you again." she looked at him curiously.

"Yes well, like I said. I came by TARDIS. Look, is it really hard to believe that I am who I say I am?" he said solemnly.

"I think I'm beginning to." Serena stated.

"I'm still not convinced." Ash stated around a mouthful of food. "If he's really The Doctor. Couldn't he have just popped his box thingy here in the house?"

"Its outer dimensions might be small, but it's not that small. I couldn't get a proper set of coordinates to land." The Doctor offered. "So I did what all domestic humans do and had to park my TARDIS like she was some sort of earth Ferrari in a real parking spot. Your units to be precise."

Ash almost choked on his tea, finding the comparison of the TARDIS to a Ferrari hilarious, "Oh gods! Thant's great! So I was right then!? It really is a tight ass ride driving intense speeds?!"

"Yeah." The Doctor again gave an awkward smile about that, the idea was growing on him.

"Awesome!" Ash stated before shoving another cracker with cheese into his face.

"Anyway, I came back because of somethin' that was bugging me," The Doctor began. "You see, it really weirded me out tha' you didn't end up dead. Or one of them for tha' matter. First I though' maybe you had and I jus' missed it. But seeing you 'ere now, seems very unlikely. The second though' I had was that maybe I jus' got lucky. Which could have been, but my brain was telling me otherwise. However, now that I have come here, I think you both have given me the answer I was lookin' for before I had to even ask it. Serena, how well can you see?"

Well that was quite a personal question, was what Serena thought, but if it helped him then who was she to say no.

"Uh, well, I can see much better than Ash. I can see things around me enough that I can get around most places without running into things or killing myself by tripping. Got terrible depth perception though. But yeah unless like I get really close to your face, I can't even tell all your features. I could see you smiling earlier though, if that helps any. But now that I am sitting, it's really hard to tell the features on your face." she shrugged.

"Tell me, could you see that man, Jordan's eyes?" he inquired hoping his theory was right.

"Uh." she thought about it a moment. "Actually...no."

"Oh thank the universe." he sighed and then began to laugh. It was that kind of laugh that was one given usually by someone who'd not slept in a long time or had been so stressed out that, by just hearing good news, it would make them break.

"What's so funny?" Ash asked looking from The Doctor to Serena. "Did I miss something?"

"Brilliant! Ohhhh heavens! Thank you! Thank you!" The Doctor cried with a bit of joy, raising his hands to the ceiling as if to address the sky.

"Has he lost it?" Ash continued. "Does he need help? Maybe a doctor?"

Serena looked from The Doctor and his wild cry out to Ash and his confused stares. She too then began to giggle just a bit, partially because it was contagious, but also because of Ash's questions with The Doctors praises to the heavens on top of that. A part of her was also starting to realize what The Doctor had figured out. She HAD survived! Whatever that thing really was, because it hadn't be Jordan, not really, she still had survived!

"Don't you get it!?" The Doctor said with some elation and gestured to them, then rolled his eyes exasperatedly, almost to himself as if he was scolding himself for being a stupid pudding brain.

"No you didn't miss anything, and I don't think he needs a doctor." she stated with a small snort. "I think, I think what he's trying to say, is because I couldn't see Jordan's face. The....um.....alien, couldn't attack me like it wanted to and bailed."

"Exactly!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Oh moons of Ragthoria you two are amazing! Which means this can work."

"Ah gimp privilege! Wait, what can work?" Ash asked.

"You ask a lot of questions don't you?" he looked at Ash, but before Ash could respond he continued. "Good, questions are good, as long as they are the right ones."

Ash just stared at him in disbelief.

"My plans, well I don't have then completely yet, but once they are, you two will help me!" He grinned, then let it drop knowing not every human he stumbled upon would want to help. "That is, if you want to. I mean it's not completely necessary for me to go through with them but..."

"It would help?" Serena piped in.

"Right exactly. It would help." The Doctor stated and took a long drink of the tea, and damn it felt good going down, more so now than even before. Perhaps that was what he really needed in order to continue this venture. A good hot cup of tea, some food, and answers that apparently stared him smack in the face the whole time. It was like taking a cold shower and coming out refreshed.

"You....you really are him...aren't you?" Serena stated, not giggling anymore.

"Yes." he stated. "I really am."

Just the way The Doctor had been passionate about what he said, how he said it, it was so hard for her to deny the truth any longer. She began to shake, now that the events of earlier had let her adrenaline subside, she was able to think more clearly and it scared her. That really had happened. She really had been almost killed by an alien! An alien! From who knew where! That didn't happen, this universe didn't do aliens. At least not yet. Sure there were theories, but nothing public to prove its true existence.

However, here was The Doctor. The REAL Doctor. Not just some image of him on a screen, but he was right there, sitting, in her home. There were really no words for that. She had to face the fact, she could also feel the reality, even though she'd been trying to mentally push it away up until now.

"I'm sorry!" she began to cry, all the fear she'd not let in earlier flood in now, now that she was able to just let go.

The Doctor's eyes went wide with worry. Had he said something? He opened his mouth to try and speak, but nothing came out, so he just pursed them in a concerned thin line as he tried to decide whether to go over to her and comfort her or not.

"Oh damn it, now look what you did. You got her to cry." Ash snipped just a little, a bit of his moodiness popping out, only because he now was concerned too.

"Oh I didn't mean to." The Doctor shot back and decided to get up after that comment to go console her. "Look, I didn' mean to upset you, okay?"

"It's not-" she stopped abruptly to sob a bit more. "It's not you. It's just..."

"Overwhelming?" The Doctor asked softly as he started to rub her back.

"Yeah." she nodded. "I'm just, sorry I didn't believe you, trust you."

"Don't worry about it." The Doctor stated, clearly not phased by the fact. "You didn't know. I don't exist here remember. I'm only fiction. You were right to think me a loon. Heck, I don't deny that I'm not one, after all mad man with a box eh?"

"Yeah." she sniffled with a small laugh.

"But clearly you had every right not to trust. You still have every right not to trust." he stated.

"But I could have died! Or, or became one of those..." she shivered, tears still rolling down her face. "Aliens."

"Yes, but you didn'. You know why?" The Dcotor smiled a bit.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because A, your brilliant and B, I was there." he offered.

She nodded to him in understanding as he continued, "You have nothing to worry about. Now that I'm here and your brother is here, things will be alright. I promise, and I don't say that lightly. Promises I intend to keep."

"So wait," Ash piped in. "You're telling me some face hugging bastard almost killed my sister?"

Ash was clearly starting to come out of the state he had been in, probably because of the energy in the house and the gravity of the situation at hand.

"Not quite face hugging." The Doctor stated. "But close enough. Think more....soul eater....succubus I think."

"Damn dude." Ash stated his face more serious now. "Do I need to go all Ash vs. the Evil Dead on them or something?"

"No." The Doctor stated, shaking his head at Ash's self-justifying reference. "We don't know what they are capable of. They are dangerous, there is no doubt. And I really don't believe they belong here either. This universe in particular. But we don't want to go fighting those head first with no plan. Also just going to put this out there, I am not fond of guns, so if there is any intention of use of one on one of these things, the guilty party can stand home."

"Okay, geez don't get yourself in a knot." Ash recoiled.

The Doctor wasn't going to take back what he said. Sure it was prickly, but for a good reason. It kept people safe. Gun's just made people do stupid things. The years of time taught him that. It wasn't to say he wasn't going to try and get these aliens removed from the planet, but he was going to have to go about it differently than what they'd expect. He was going to have to either threaten them to leave earth or he was going to have to find a way to put them in a box and ship them first class back through the dimensions to his universe so they could be booted back to where they belonged.

"By the way, I only see shadows and light. Do you really think I'd own a gun? Not really." Ash scoffed. "There wouldn't be a point."

"Right, fair point." The Doctor said rubbing his temples. "Sorry, habit."

"It's all good," Ash laughed.

"I get it though, your upset that your sister might have gotten almost hurt tonight. I feel you." he commented to Ash. "But we do have to go about this smart."

"Alright." Ash nodded. "So, Doctor, how do you..er...we plan on doing that then?"

"That's the part I'm still trying to figure out." The Doctor replied then looked back at Serena. "Are you going to be alrigh'?"

"Yeah...I think so." she nodded solemnly, but looked down.

The Doctor looked at her still with concern, and then pulled her into an awkward hug. He wasn't into hugs like he had been in other regenerations, but he figured this could be one exception to hide ones face, "It'll be alrigh'. It'll be alrigh'."

She buried her face into The Doctors shoulder, the shaking she had been doing settling down to a dull roar as she embraced his gentle warmth. Of course by that point Ash felt left out a bit, plus he wanted to prove he wasn't an ass. So he got up and wrapped himself around Serena from behind and hugged her, trying to show that he worried about her too, which he did. So for a few long moments they were cuddled together like a heap of arms and bodies, until finally both Ash and The Doctor pulled away at the same time.

"Um yeah." Ash cleared his throat. "Let's do this."

"You sure, I mean you're not really convinced I'm who I say I am." The Doctor stated staring at Ash.

"Yes well, any person who saves my sisters ass from the fire of a sicko, is alright in my books." Ash nodded. "No matter how young or ...old they might be."

"'Hey!" The Doctor stated but smiled a little and laughed. "I may look like an older gentleman right now, but I'll have you note I am ....let's see, how many thousand years has it been now. Oh doesn't really matter. In any case I'm a few thousand years young thank you very much. Bran' new cycle! So don't be sassin' me mister or I'll start calling you kid, since well technically you are, but still."

"Idle threats old man." Ash teased back.

"Watch it." He waggled a finger at Ash as he stood fully up now, but was still smirking.

"Or what, you going to gum me to death?" Ash snorted.

"Well I never!" The Doctor stated. "You're lucky I don't sonic you inside an energy bubble. Serena control your brother will you."

Serena began to giggle again. This made The Doctor grin a bit. There it was, what he wanted to see. He was the only one allowed to be grumpy among them. Not because he had much of a choice, damn regeneration. Ash smirked more hearing his sister giggle. Ash preferred his sister happy over being upset. Plus, if Serena believed him to be this Doctor she watched, then who was he to argue. He was a bit skeptical, but this guy saved Serena, so he'd give him a chance.

"Ash is right, let's do this. As scary as it is, I'd feel bad if someone wasn't as lucky as me." she stated.

"That's the spirit!" The Doctor cheered, then clapped his hands together. "Now, if we are done with tea and food. Which by the way all of it was lovely, even the rolls. We should probably go to the TARDIS. No time like the present. Unless of course you're both tired?"

"I don't think I could sleep for a week." Serena admitted.

"I've got a bad case of nons twenty four so," Ash stated then saw the confused look on The Doctors face. "Basically a form of insomnia."

"Oh." The Doctor stated in understand.

"So I guess what we are trying to say is, yes." Serena answered. "We can go now. Besides..."

She looked around the room a bit, both sad and nervous, "I don't think I'll feel safe staying here if those things might be looking for me."

"Good point," The Doctor agreed. "Plus it migh' put your brother in danger as well. Especially if they are mad that they couldn' get rid of you the first way."

"Yeah." she nodded. "Just, let us collect a few things first, before we go. Just in case. If you're anything like your showganger, you're notorious for having time space landing issues."

"Oi, no faith. None. I'm wounded." The Doctor pouted, but understood. "But of course, we have time."

She knew more about his life than he'd thought. It would be interesting as much as creepy as to what she knew. A part of him wanted to ask later, but a part of him was a bit terrified to. Mostly because he was worried this would become some embarrassing show and tell of his life. Plus some things were still hard to bear with.

"Come on Ash." she took her brother's hand and drug him out of the room.

"But, food." he stated still reaching for crackers even though tea time was over.

"We can take some with us, just come on." she sighed still pulling, finally able to get him away after he grabbed another cracker. "You're welcome to drink more tea or eat more while waiting."

"Thank you." he nodded and sat back down.

"Wait why does he get to have more and I have to go with you!" Ash whined.

"Because we have to pack dummy." she said firmly.

"Oh yeah, right." he stated then tilted his head after they stopped at their rooms. "Wait why? Can't he just bring us back the moment we left? If he's "The Doctor". Doesn't his ship like, go through time and space?"

"Yes, it does, but that doesn't always mean he's spot on the nose when landing." she stated. "Hence the packing. Now go, get what you think you'll want to bring or need. No rec stuff though!"

"Wait! You can't make me go without that!" Ash stated. "I need me my recreations."

"I said no!" she barked.

"Okay, okay fine." he called out and then mumbled to himself. "You ain't the boss of me."

"What was that?" she called out.

"Nothing! Just talking to myself." Ash called, rolling his eyes, before he stuffed those thing he wasn't supposed to anyway into a bag.

"More packing less grumbling." Serena stated. She perused the room, finding things along the way she'd need or want to take with her.

Items she felt that if she was never able to come home again, she'd feel better about having on hand. Things like pictures, she even took ones out of frames. She didn't have many physical photos, but the ones she did have were valuable. There were some papers too she'd wanted on hand just in case. That alone took minutes to go through, almost a half hour really.

Most of her collectables she'd take, but as was she knew she couldn't take everything. So as hard as it was, she left them where they were, they were just collectables after all. Their value was only as superficial as their price tags really. It was almost like she didn't need them anymore. She really didn't need them in the first place, but this situation made her realize, there are more important things in life. Like family.

She did pick up the one she had a few days ago though and stared at it. It made her smile this time. The figure of The Doctor stared back at her. It was like a dream come true. She wished upon a Doctor and now, there he was. It sent a wave of heat through her cheeks. As much as she felt exhilarated by the fact, she also felt bad, like it might have been her fault he was there. But she'd try and not tell him that part.

"Wow, quite a collection you got." The Doctor stated, having walked up to the doorway, he was starting now to feel that antsy that he was notorious for.

"Ack!" she jumped and drew the collectable close to her chest, her cheeks flaring up even worse. Now he was able to see her nerd for all its open glory. "Um, yeah. I like collecting things."

"So do I, " he mused. "Mine are just....different. Nothing wrong with yours though, everyone has their hobbies. I know someone who's into stealing rare artifacts, but I'm guessing by the fact you know my life it seems you'd know that."

"Yeah. River." she nodded.

"Right." The Doctor nodded and wandered in further. Seeing the figure in her hands he raised a brow and noted, "That looks nothing like me. The face, the hair, the eyes, those brows, all of it, all wrong."

Serena gave a short laugh, "No doubt about your ego."

"Hmph." The Doctor scoffed. "Just wanted to make sure things are going alrigh' in here."

"Yeah, I was just looking at my collection. You know. You never know what will happen right?" she stated, looked down at the figure before she tried to put it away.

"Let me see." The Doctor asked curiously, reaching a hand out for the figure. "Yep all wrong, oh well, perfection like my isn' copy able."

He looked over at her and the look she was giving make him smirk, "Oh come on, I'm teasin'. Still weird though. Kinda like interactin' with myself with my other regenerations. Gives me the geebies."

She took it back and looked at it again, "I like it. Besides, it's special. I think it brought you too me. Not just because it was you, I mean maybe it could have been. It's hard to say rally, you know superstitious wishing and that, but yeah. I was in a low place a few days ago and I really thought I could use a friend. Now, here you are. The real you, not some cheap plastic bobble."

She put the figure back on the shelf and stared at it.

"Perhaps all it means is we were meant to meet anyway." he stated. "Nothing ever happens by coincidence, not really. You need a friend, and well, I need help. Mutual needs. I'll be your friend. If you want."

"Sure." She smiled. "I'd like that."

"Wonderful." he smiled back, shoving his hands into his pockets. "So you almost done then?"

"Yeah, just about. Maybe you could go check on Ash for me, make sure the ding dong is staying out of trouble." she said with an exasperated stare, knowing that her brother probably was already.

"Sure. I'll let you finish up. Soon as your ready we can go." he gave her a nod and headed to Ash's room. "Oh Ashhhh?"

The Doctor then disappeared off into the other bedroom. With a sigh of relief, Serena finished packing, by grabbing a few changes of clothes, and products she'd need in case. Most were in the bathroom though. Once she got all of those, she herself was ready. She waited in the front room for her brother, and The Doctor who seemed to still be talking to him. It was good, he needed someone to look to. The Doctor was just the right person too.

At first The Doctor just leaned against Ash's doorframe, but when he didn't respond at first, he walked in a bit further.

"How's it going?" he asked.

"Just ducky." Ash stated grabbing things, smelling some of them of course, then throwing ones he didn't think would work aside while grabbing others.

"You know, when this is over, I can help you." The Doctor offered.

"With what?" Ash asked looking over, still packing.

"Your demons." The Doctor stated flatly and looked away a bit, because he too had demons to contend with still.

"My demons? What would you even know about my demons?" Ash asked bitterly.

"That they haunt you." he began. "That you hate seeing them, hearing them. Trust me I know I see and hear demons too. Maybe not the same ones as you, but I do. I have my own past, and one that I'm not always proud of."

Ash contemplated this for a moment. On one hand The Doctor knew nothing about him. On the other hand, at least The Doctor wasn't telling him out right what he should and shouldn't do with his life. He sounded like he genuinely wanted to actually help, and not just shrink his ass from here to therapist kingdom come.

"Okay. How?' Ash asked, trying to giving him a benefit of a doubt.

"We can talk more about it after we deal with this current problem." he stated. "But trust me, I can help."

"Alright. Just no shrink talk. No "how do you feel" crap. That's the last thing I need." Ash stated sarcastically. "I don't need my sister hovering and worrying over me."

"I think you're a bit late on that one bub." The Doctor stated with a shrug.

"Doesn't surprise me." he retorted. "She's like a drone some days. Even when I wasn't just visiting. When we were younger, she'd always hover over me. I'm supposed to take care of her, I'm the brother after all, not the other way around."

"That not apparently the way she sees it." The Doctor offered.

"Clearly." he huffed and then stopped his packing for a second and looked over at him again. "Thanks, again. For saving her. You have no idea how much that means to me."

"I'd do the same if it was you or anyone else. But I appreciate it." The Doctor gave a nod.

"Really," he mused. "I don't know what I would have done without her. I mean it's why I am here. I know she'll take care of me and I her."

"You're a good lad Ash." He put a hand on Ash's shoulder. "Even if a bit misguided sometimes."

"Let me guess though, she had you come in and check on me right?" he stated, a small smile on his face though.

"Yeah." he gave a guilty face.

"Eh, it's alright. Not your fault she worries." Ash stated. "I'll be done soon. No worries."

"Good to hear." The Doctor replied.

"Oh! Before you leave the room!" Ash smirked.

"What?"

"Should I bring a towel?" Ash snickered.

"Wait, what?!" The Doctor was caught off guard.

"A towel you know? Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's one of the rules, never forget a towel." Ash chuckled.

"Oh lord!" The Doctor laughed and waved a hand at him and then turned to walk out the door of the room so he could try not to have to answer such silly nonsense.

"Come on! Humor a man!" Ash called after.

"Sure." The Doctor just laughed as he wander out.

He knew what the Hitchhikers Guide was, it existed in his world. He just was amused that this boy had to go and reference it in front of him. The kid was a nerd to he could tell, it just seemed he didn't want to promote it like the way Serena did. By the time The Doctor got out to the other room, Serena was already waiting for him and Ash. Of course Ash wasn't far behind him. It only had took a few more minutes for him to finish and come out, a towel literally over his shoulder. Along with his duffle, backpack, and guitar slung over his shoulder. This made the Doctor raise his brow. The kid look like he intended to stick around the TARDIS for a while. This both elated and saddened the Doctor at the same time because sadly they didn't belong to his universe.

"Oh my gods Ash, you're seriously bringing a towel!" Serena cried with a bit of laughter.

"Smoke em' if you got em'?" he cheekily grinned.

"Some days I swear." Serena shook her head.

Ash just stood there smugly, tall and proud of his load he had.

"I guess we're ready." Serena snorted.

"Alright then." The Doctor agreed. "Off we go."

He made his way to the door. Serena followed in close foot behind, a bag of things slung over her shoulder. She wasn't as stocked up as he was. Then Ash was in tow last. His weight dragged behind him. The moment they were outside, Serena let her brother pass, and then made sure the door was locked behind her and that she had the keys to get in again just in case they were able to come back at the proper time. Who'd have thought her life would become a real life Doctor Who episode, though more dangerous. The idea was almost unthinkable, and the adventure hadn't truly begun just yet.


	9. Transcendental

Serena had made her way after her brother, but before she could get very far, she ran right into the back of him.

"Ash!" she cried out, but Ash did not respond. "Ash! What gives?!"

"T-T-That," he stammered, staring straight forward. Sadly she couldn't see because his body was in the way.

"What?" she tried to see past him, but all she could see was a bright light emanating from somewhere in front of them definitely high off the ground and was very cyan white in tinge.

"It's...bright!" Ash exclaimed.

The Doctor had never heard the TARDIS called that before. There was always room for new things he supposed, yet he raised a brow in interest anyway. These two were going to be interesting at the least. It was not every day he had two nearly blind companions aboard. Is that what he was calling them now? He didn't even really know them yet. Plus this wasn't even his universe! It wasn't like he could exactly take them home back to his own with him. Yet there it was. They were companions since clearly his mind was making the decisions unconsciously for him before he could even think about the answer.

"You think tha's impressive," The Doctor said with pride as the door lock clicked. "Wait'll ya see the inside."

Serena tried to squint to see the TARDIS around her brother. She even tried pushing him a little to the side to get a better look. This just amused the Doctor even more, the sheer interest in the blue box as he pushed the door open with a creak. Ash just stood there, mouth agape.

"Well come on! No reason to dawdle." The Doctor stated hoping they'd step forward and climb aboard the TARDIS.

Serena had to put a hand on Ash's back to guide his shocked form into moving. It wasn't until the TARDIS top light of the police box went out of view, that her vision cleared enough for her to see the icon box in all its glory, and even she almost stopped and began to gape, that or pass out from feeling the need to hyperventilate. Luckily The Doctor was there to put a hand on her shoulder to gently urge her to continue inside with her brother.

As they got up the ramp, both Ash and Serena could feel the energy emanating from the core of the TARDIS, it already transforming them from normal humans, to time travelers. Rewriting their DNA ever so slightly so they could have safe passage inside her. The shock they showed was same wonder that hit every human who was brought aboard the TARDIS. It made the Doctor smile, and he waited for one of them to say it, the one thing every companion or visitor said when they'd come aboard. It amused him usually when they did.

"I can't believe it!" Ash began.

And here it goes, was what the Doctor thought.

"Me neither!" Serena agreed, breathless.

"It's....it's...." Ash stated looking around, as The Doctor hung in anticipation. "ALIVE!"

That made The Doctor actually take a shocked step back. How the hell could this boy know that! Nobody knew or understood that! It actually made both of his Gallifreyan hearts skip a beat and for a moment he had to lean against the console to regain composure.

"What's the word...." Ash continued. "Transmutable....no.....transformable...no that's not right either....hmmm...."

"Transcendental?" Serena stated wondering if she was on the right track, having been the one to actually watch the show.

"That's it!" Ash snapped his fingers, point in her general direction of voice. "Can't you see it?"

"Um." she stated looking around. "It's definitely amazing. Very, much more than what I expected. Not sure about the transcendental part, but ya."

She couldn't see what Ash was seeing, which Ash wasn't seeing the control room for what it was supposed to be, he was seeing EXACTLY what it was in ways more only a time lord should have been able to. The comment actually intrigued The Doctor.

"Exactly....what are you seein'?" The Doctor inquired, cautiously walking over to him and looking into his eyes.

"Light," he began. "But not like a light bulb sort of light. More like....light when you swing a glow stick and you see its trail, but golden. Golden streams of light! It's beautiful!"

Ash turned to Serena, "You never told me anything like this happened in the show when you'd ramble on about it. Otherwise I think I might have watched with you more often."

"I don't see anything like that?" she stated softly. "There's nothing like that in the show."

"Ash....brilliant.....amazin' Ash...." The Doctor actually smiled and put hands on his shoulders. "I think...now I could be wrong, because you are human.....is wha' you are seein' is the TARDIS. Residue of time and space."

He then looked over at Serena before looking back at Ash, "Normally humans can't nor should they see that sort of thing. Only time lords usually can. Mostly because people like me, we have seen into the untampered schism and can briefly view anything related to the time vortex. I'm amazed at your natural ability to see this. However, I do worry what it migh' do to you if anythin'."

"So is it bad he sees whatever he's seeing?" Serena asked with concern.

"Possibly." The Doctor said looking over at her again. "On the other hand. Your brother, may be a rare gem in a sea of possibilities and may very well have the ability to see such things without consequences. I don't understand the laws of this universe like I do my own. Which leaves me to be cautious, yet fascinated all at once."

She nodded, still worried, but The Doctor went over to her and raised her chin up for her to look at him.

"Don' worry, I promise on both my hearts that I will do everythin' in my power to make sure nothin' happens to him while we deal with this situation. Remember, I'm The Doctor, I keep my promises."

She smiled a bit at him and he did the same in return before turning back to Ash, "Ash, there may be a way for me to help you temporarily from getting' an overload of time vortex energy. Headaches can become a nasty problem in a tight pinch."

"Okay," Ash stated, feeling a bit worried now himself, but listened. "What do I have to do?"

"Nothin' you have to do. More like somethin' I'm going to do. But I need you to trust me." The Doctor stated.

"Okay. I think after saving my sister, I think I can." Ash nodded. "But just so you know, I'm not special or anything. I think I just might have had a bad brownie or something. Should go away later. But yeah still won't mind the help either way. Not a fan of headaches, its why I....yeah."

"Good." The Doctor stated and raised his hands putting them on either side of Ash's head. "Just open your mind."

"This isn't going to be some strange Vulcan mi-"Ash stopped in the middle of the sentence as his body went rigid for a moment as The Doctor merged minds with him.

"Ash!" Serena exclaimed and tried to go forward.

"Don'!" The Doctor snipped. "Its alrigh' I'm just helping him. Don' worry. He's not in pain."

Serena stopped dead in her tracks and watched. It wasn't more than a minute before Ash came out of the trance state and The Doctor slowly lowered his hands away from Ash's face.

"Whoa." Ash said looking about, blinking.

"Is that better. Not as bright now is it." The Doctor commented.

"No, but I can still see it." Ash stated.

"That's because I can't take it fully from you." The Doctor stated. "But at least the worst of it is filtered out."

The Doctor then backed up a step and looked at both of them before clasping his hands together in front of himself, "In any case, welcome to the TARDIS. Time and Relative-"

"Dimension in Space." Serena finished.

"Yes, exactly." he stated, turning to move around the console, flipping a few switches here and there. "So, I'm guessing you know then what she can do?"

"Yeah." Serena shrugged. "Well as far as I know from the show anyway. I know it can travel time and space. Sometimes dimension....but it's not supposed to. At least supposedly not anymore."

"Right." The Doctor stated looking over at them. "Which means, me bein' here is a mistake."

He made his way around the other side of the console and continued, "Not to say meetin' you was a mistake, because it's not. And even if it were, it's a wonderful beautiful mistake I'd do again in a heartbeat. But yes, I bein' here, in this universe is all sorts of wrong. But so are our friends. Well I should say more acquaintances, but you get my drift."

"Yeah." Serena nodded.

"Shouldn't she be more of a STARDIS?" Ash piped in, clearly off on some other tangent of thought.

"A wha'?" The Doctor raised a brow.

"A STARDIS, I mean, it's all bright cyaney blue on the outside and all bright golden on the inside. Why can't it be a STARDIS instead?" Ash mused.

Serena smirked a bit at his stupid silliness and even smacked him a little for it just because. She was his sister after all, she had a right. It was like a sibling bond code to give each other a hard time. Plus, the lightening mood did help the situation at hand.

"The words that come out of your mouth never cease to amaze me." The Doctor scoffed a bit, but was smirking himself.

"What?" Ash looked bemused by their reactions.

"Nothing brother, your just....being you." Serena patted her brother's shoulder and then walked towards where The Doctor was and looked at what he was doing. "What are you doing?"

"Ah," The Doctor began. "Getting the TARDIS to create you a room. You need sleep. The both of you. I know our situation is dire, but it's no good goin' into a situation half dead to the world. I just wanted you safe beforehand. The TARDIS is the safest place....no matter what universe I'm in."

"How big is this ship?" Ash asked.

"Big enough." The Doctor stated.

"Don't think about it Ash." Serena stated looking over at her brother. "It'll only make your head hurt."

"Mmm." Ash stated with a bit of a pout. "I'm not dumb you know."

"Didn't say you were." Serena retorted.

"You're not dumb Ash. But Serena is right. It's a bit complicated. You'll just have to sort of...discover it for yourself." The Doctor stated. "Trust me the TARDIS is big enough to house bedrooms and many other things."

"Like?" Ash perked up with interest.

"Well a library for one. A pool for another. I have a cinema room. Had a bowling lane room somewhere not sure where that one got to though. A laundry room. Wardrobe room. Oh and probably your most favorite, a kitchen. There's tons of rooms for different things."

"You had me at kitchen." Ash stated with glee.

"Of course." Serena face palmed.

"Also the TARDIS will make it easy for you to find anything, including your room." The Doctor stated stepping back finally from the console to look at them, his hands going into his pockets.

"Wait, couldn't we both have our own rooms if what you say is true?" Ash inclined.

"Yes you could, but, I figured for convenience sake, and less stress on the TARDIS, that the both of you share." he stated and gave a bit of a smile. "Besides, I chose something special for you both."

"You think it's really wise the two of us be together. He snores!" Serena whined a bit.

"Yeah well you kick so there." Ash stuck out his tongue.

"I do not!" she retorted.

"Sure you do. The last time we had to share a room you nearly football slugged me off the bed!" Ash jabbed.

"No you just almost rolled off and dreamt I kicked you!" Serena crossed her arms.

"Oi, you both'll be fine!" The Doctor cut through and put a hand on each of their shoulders, bringing the two closer together. "Believe me, it won' be that bad and it won' kill either of ya. Now off you go. Both of you. I don't want to see either of your faces for at least six hours!"

He shoved the both of them off in a direction where ironically a doorway to a hall was located. The two of them stared at each other since they were close to each other then back at The Doctor whom wiggled fingers of departure at them as if to say tah tah for now. Granted neither really could see that, but somehow both could sort of feel the emphasis of him wanting them to go to bed.

Serena sighed, "Come on doofus."

"I am not a doofus!" Ash pouted.

"Sure you are." she stated as she and Ash rounded a corner to go down the corridor.

Their departure from the control room made The Doctor sigh with relief. Not just for the fact of their safety, but for the fact that he was alone to think. There was a small part of them that made him think of some old friends of his, companions he once knew, but no longer were a part of his life. Yet the memory of them was definitely a fond one, even for a Pond.

Meanwhile, Ash and Serena made their way to their room, wandering down some corridors of the TARDIS. It was more wondrous than Serena could have ever imagined as she had ran her hand along the TARDIS walls as they had walked. It was almost like being in a dream and just not waking up. A dream that felt so real, but a dream none the less. Yet a part of her didn't want to wake up either. Then again a part of her didn't want to sleep either because she figured if she did, she'd just wake up back in her normal bed again and it will have been just some strange fever dream she got somehow. That she didn't want right now.

Ash's cane made loud clicking sounds as the tip bounced off the floor, showing just how large and vast the corridors actually were. They both could also hear the hum of the TARDIS vibrate through the halls. It was ambient and almost lulling.

"Echo!" Ash called out down the hall. He could hear the sound of his own voice reverberate a bit back to himself. Serena had jumped though at his sudden call out, taking a deep intake of air. "Wow, this place really could go one forever."

"Technically, it can." Serena stated.

"Seriously?" Ash tilted his head.

"Mhmm." she replied. "The TARDIS is infinite, at least as far as the show states anyway."

"Trippy." Ash snorted. "I'm surprised he sent us alone."

"Well like he said the TARDIS will show us the way." she assured.

"I think I'd still get lost somehow." Ash scoffed.

"That's because you're you." Serena teased.

"Shut up, you're not supposed to agree," he tried to swat her with his cane, but missed.

"Missed." Serena mocked.

"Oh yeah." he turned a bit her direction and began to tickler her mercilessly.

"Ahhh!" she cried out, falling against one of the TARDIS walls, its cool metallic surface touching her back. She tried to push him off and eventually succeeded pushing her brother into the other wall on the opposite side of the corridor and then tried to get away so she'd not get tackled again. Alas her brother was like some damn ninja even though his sight sucked and was able to hear his way to her and grabbed her from behind again and tickle her. She ended up squealing out and tried to wriggle away. He even picked her up and carried her a few feet, cane dangling, them both wandering without being able to see their destination, before bumping into another wall, which forced him to let her go.

Both of them laughed a bit after that before interlocking arms again and following the corridor some more before stopping in front of their room.

"This is it." she stated looking right at the door. "Our room."

"So are we going to go in then?" Ash mused.

"Yeah, I just..." Serena trailed off.

"Don't want to really?" Ash inquired.

"Yeah, just a bit." Serena said solemnly.

"Hey, look, if this is some dream concocted by something recreational or whatever, at least we can be crazy together?" Ash tried to assure her.

"Your right." Serena stated and leaned against her brother for comfort.

He petted her head before the both of them went up to the door and the thing hissed open to reveal a room that was large enough to house a desk, chairs for sitting and relaxing, and of course the bed...or should be said, beds as in plural. The Doctor had given Serena and Ash a room recreated after his last regenerations companions room, bunk beds included.

"Oh my Spaceballs!" Ash exclaimed after he had made his way over the bunk bed. "It's a bunk! I've never slept in one of those before!"

"Ughhhhh...." Serena face palmed. What did The Doctor think they were, five? This was going to be hell. Sharing a bunk with her brother was going to drive her madder than the mad hatter.

"Oh come on! I think it's awesome!" Ash stated, just proving the five year old statement to be true she swore. "I'm gonna take top!"

"You sure that's a good idea?" she breathed in worry.

"Pffftttt why not?" Ash stated. "Smoke em' if you got em'? It's a once in a life time opportunity! I'm not going to let my lack of sight get the better of me! Besides, since I can't see that far down, there's no need to worry about height phobia issues after all."

"That's not what I'm worried about." she grumbled a bit, putting her things down on the lower bunk anyway.

"Then what?" Ash asked, finally looking down at her from the top bunk, after he had climbed up.

"Nothing, just nothing." she waved him off. She was more worried he'd kill himself because of abusing recreational stuff.

"Give it a chance Seri." Ash gave a pleading face. "Pleaseeeeee."

"Sigh, fineeeee." Serena huffed.

"Yay!" Ash bounced back further against the bed more towards the side that was nearest the wall since the bunk had one side up against a wall for space sake and design of course, putting his things on the beds corner. "Now, he said this ship has a galley or kitchen didn't he?"

"You're hungry again!?" Serena brooded.

"What?! Gotta eat to live!" Ash snorted leaning back over the open side of the bunk to look at his sister. "Besides, this much epic and one is bound to get the munchies."

"Gods your incorrigible!" she rolled her eyes.

"Yeahhhh, but you love me anyway!" he stated, strangely vaulting off the side of the bed instead of going down the ladder, then kissed her on the cheek before going to the door to go find food.

"Damn it Ash!" Serena cursed at him being reckless.

"I know." Ash smirked and darted out the door, cane in hand, and down the hall, leaving Serena to flop over in exaggeration onto her bunk. The weight of the situation began to finally seep in after a few moments of lying there, and the adrenaline ran off finally. She didn't even realize she passed out after a while, nor the fact that her brother came back some hour or two later and tucked her into bed.


	10. Forging Ahead

Now that the kiddos were gone, it left The Doctor to continue to figure things out again. Without Serena or Ash on his conscience, he could think a bit more clearly. At least that was what he was hoping anyway. It always seemed he thought better alone, or at least that was what he liked to believe whether it was true or not. To be honest, it really didn't matter that much, he thought about as good alone as he did in a tight situation with lots of noise. His regeneration was just picky. Even River or Clara, who he couldn't at this point remember, could tell anyone he was a stubborn grumpy cross brows who did what he chose more often than what was needed of him.

"Okay." he huffed a bit after shaking his head at the others departure. He scanned his console in thought, "Now how to deal with these unwelcome guests."

The unwelcome guests that he was referencing was the aliens that had managed their way onto this Earth. The way he saw it, if it hadn't been this Earth it would have been the one from his universe. That also seemed to baffle him as well. Why in the name of Gallifrey was it so easy to cross through a dimensional rift? And furthermore, where the hell did the damn thing come from?

He was used to the strange like that sort of thing being in Cardiff, but here in a no name state in the midst of the United States, that was just uncommon. Though, in some strange aspects it made just a bit of sense. Usually the weird was in the most remote and or unobtainable areas. Cardiff in all reality was a fluke to be near such a populous area. Yet they happened. There was even a strange phenomenon in New York and not one that had anything to do with weeping angles, but he was certain it was something that might have drawn them to such a city. Temporal energy was everywhere in a lot of cases, just more often than not in such small quantities of noticeability that they weren't dangerous or even readable.

"Let's deduce the obvious." The Doctor went over to his chalk board and stared at it. "I am here."

He marked down the date and place he was on the board. "They are not from here. I'm sure of it. Which means that they are here because of the same dimensional rift issue. If that is what it is, which seems at this time most logical."

He marked the aliens that were here down. "However, I am under the impression they might not have been here long otherwise the locals would have already turned this city upside down."

The Doctor then wrote unknown time and date with a question mark but also added in parentheses the fact of them being there around the same time as him, perhaps days sooner. He then went back over to his control console and brought up a map of the city just to try and figure out why there of all places. There wasn't much to the city. It was very rudimentarily laid out for the most part. The only three big factors within its limits was the oil refinery, the hospital, and of course the base.

"Hmmm." he thought. "Yes, no, maybe....."

He went over to add the three major possible factors he found onto the board. He also drew another earth to show the variation of that one to the one he was on as being a different universe, an alternate timeline to which did not include him as a real person. The thought sort of made him sad to know that he was not real there, but merely a ghost of fiction. Yet even as a ghost, he seemed to hold some impact on the people he brought aboard his TARDIS. Was that how it was like for him when traveling with companions sometimes, they felt as much like ghosts as he did at that moment?

Now he was just getting distracted. He stared at the board for a few long moments before he just got too annoyed with the thing and turned away from it once more. This was honestly ridiculous. Normally this sort of thing he could figure out in a snap, but with certain variables being different, it made things a bit more complicated. Plus he wasn't actually certain what specie those creatures were. All he had was that they seemed to steal the life force from a person. That was when his own stomach decided to make a boisterous growl. When was the last time he'd actually eaten? Couldn't have been that long ago could it? This was the thought that had crossed his mind without much effort. Maybe that was it though, he couldn't think because he hadn't eaten actually in a while. Coffee didn't count.

"Macaroons, that's what I need." he mused to himself as he went and found a plate he remembered he had on one of his many nooks that he had actually had, had a cheese sandwich on prior to that, that was now obviously gone. He went over to the dispenser, prepared to have some macaroons, but when he pulled the lever to dispense them all that came out was this wet rainbow slushy stuff. The Doctors eyes had gone wide at the sight of this. That was not supposed to happen! It was then that he thought he heard the TARDIS laughing at him.

"Oh haha, very funny." he grumbled a bit and put the plate aside. "It's not supposed to do that and you know it."

All the TARDIS did was whirp at him, her running light above the roundel's moving around the room almost as if to signify a rolling of eyes as if to say "I know that" to him. Yet the TARDIS still seemed to find his dilemma amusing none the less.

"Ugh, guess I should fix it before I forget." The Doctor brooded a bit as he went and grabbed his toolkit he kept up in the control room. "Of course you had to go and repair everythin' else except that. Cheeky."

The TARDIS whirped again at him a bit, but The Doctor didn't dignify her with a response. Mostly because The Doctor got the impression that she had left it on purpose for him to fix as a sort of joke. It was kind of their thing really. Going over to the panel he went and began to fidget with it. The moment he got it open though, a huge avalanche of slush came flowing out in rainbow. The Doctor watched as the slush fell to the control room floor. This just made him cringe in regret.

"Great, that's just great." he sighed and then sidelong eyed the TARDIS herself. "You're not helping."

Now he could tell that the TARDIS was laughing at him. Mostly because the slush almost had become a part of him and his motif.

"You know what fine," he got up. "I'll deal with it later."

He tossed the tool back into the box and flipped it shut smartly before walking away from it. It was clear that the dispenser really wasn't what he was actually frustrated or angry with. It was the situation at hand and all it was doing was making him a bit attention distracted from the frustration.

"Come on I should be able to figure this out." he muttered to himself. "Dimensional rift, alien species stealing life energy, TARDIS falls through....what could they possibly want here? Did they come here on purpose or are they as much victims of the rift as me? It's possible they could be here to invade or they could be here by hap chance and may just take advantage of the situation anyway. Ugh, so many unknown variables!"

He began to pace, "Domestic, that's it! I've become too complacent that I've become a pudding brain just like the rest of the lot. The answer is right their staring me in my idiot face and I can't even find it!"

He stopped back in front of the glaring diagram, "Why is it so much easier when someone around to bounce thoughts off to? Like Amy and Rory, Donna, Martha, Rose, heck even K9. K9....hmm speaking of... wonder where that blasted dog gotten off too...."

He thought about it a moment, "Oh right, he's in storage."

He hung his head, realizing he maybe should have still had the two stay up, but alas he let his compassion get the better of him and let them wander off to bed. Then something dawned on him, his companions were blind! Well, their vision was at least impaired. He wasn't exactly sure how much for each of them, but still. Something about that stirred in the back of his mind for a few long moments, until it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Ah hah!" he cried out with inspiration, and made his way back down and around his console. He was going to take apart the dispenser and remove any unnecessary parts to it. Partially to help fix the dispenser, and partially to use whatever scraps he got from it, for another project. The dispenser situation was annoying, but manageable. Eventually he got done tinkering with the dispenser, forcefully shut the panel to it and gave a smack. This time, without even prompting, the machine actually dispensed out a macaroon.

Pocketing the scrap, the Doctor took the macaroon, knowing where he had to go next. He then began to head out of the control room. If he couldn't figure out this damned situation, he was at least going to keep his hands and mind busy with a project he could do so he could think and process out the problem, maybe.

In his determination he had wandered down the corridors to a room he'd not been in, in he didn't know how long, and went inside. Inside was a cavern it seemed of endless junk, scrap far as the eye could see. It wasn't a room he often shared with people, mostly because who else other than him would honestly care about having random junk about, especially for repairing or building things. Knowing sort of what he needed and wanted, he moved about the room gathering supplies to get started with. Everything from panel pieces to nuts, bolts, and everything else in between. By the time he was done collecting, he had pockets and arms filled with stuff. This was going to be a long night.

The next place he went was his storage where he kept models of K9 for those "just in case" scenarios. A part of him sometimes did wrestle with the thought of why he never had another model built for himself, but in the end the only excuse he could think of was that it reminded him of Sarah Jane Smith too much. Not that anything had happened to her or anything was wrong, it was more he missed her always, like a very dear and close friend.

"Hello boy." The Doctor mused after wandering in to where there was a few models, some not even finished, were kept. Putting the stuff in his arms down, he went over to his more decommissioned model of K9 and put a hand on the robotic dogs head. "Some days."

The Doctor ran an aged looking hand across the dog's metal dome, "Some days I do miss our adventures."

Almost as if in The Doctors mind, it was like he could heard K9 say "affirmative" to him. The thought actually made him smile at the forever sleeping dog. As great as K9 was, that particular model of dog wasn't going to quite make the grade in helping someone like Ash. However, parts of unfinished versions of K9 could help forge a better model, more fully functional for mobility. He just had to check out a few designs he'd collected and researched on hand.

"You're gonna be a dad K9, how does tha' sound?" he gave a small chuckle. "Seems fitting doesn' it, about time righ'?"

If he didn't know any better the fact the dog was not working, he almost could believe he could have heard "Yes Master" said in his mind. Sadly all it was, was just a ghost of what The Doctor thought he might say instead of what it really was. Standing up and patting his old companion on his head, he back away from him to get started.

"Good boy." he smirked and then turned to the junk pile. "Let's get started shall we?"

Rubbing his hands together and began to grab pieces of scrap to begin wielding together. This was honestly going to take a while. Each part he took special care with though, as he put the fine detail parts together. The wiring and what not was going to be the hardest part. All the small wirings were actually going to be much tinier than K9's by far, but there were some pieces of the unfinished models he was going to use. It was why some of the other stuff had to be smaller, because any of K9's stuff he was going to have onboard this new model were a bit bigger.

However, as he worked through the night he found ways to make everything he used on the new model work. Sadly it was going to be ten times more superior to K9, but that was okay for what it was being built for. The Doctor would always have his old boy to come back to. It was like one who enjoyed a good classic car verses a supped up modern model. There was honestly sometimes no competition. An old fuddy duddy like him would prefer the original make, but he knew that Ash wouldn't find something like K9 sustainable, and that was okay. It's why he was doing this.

Eventually he placed what was going to be the "brain" into the dogs' skeletal frame and switched it on, just to test to see if the body would actually react to it. The moment it activated, the arms and legs began to act like they were swimming a bit. It was a good start. He turned it back off and continued to work.

Honestly for most humans this would have taken them months to probably build, but with the schematics The Doctor already had on hand, things he'd watched about robotic dogs in the past, and things he'd learned from societies about artificial beings from the future, he was able to compile all the things he'd need to get something this complex done in one night. It also helped he always was fixing the TARDIS and also working on the vehicles he had to keep them tuned up. Especially his motorbike.

Hours poured by before he felt content with the innards of the beast. Once that was done, he began to put the shell on and unlike K9, this dogs shell would be mobile and flexible. A material that acted and looked like metal, but was more durable than straight up sheets welded together. It was more like a stable mesh that could bend and fold in ways that could make it capable of making tight turns if running if it needed to. It literally was a masterpiece.

What was sad, was some of the pieces that were like that, had come from a model he was going to surprise K9 with some time back. A female robot dog. He had even debated a couple names for her, one of which was a guilty felt call back to one of his early companions, Ace. In this case she would have been Artificial Canine Explorer. A next step generation of dog that The Doctor thought, would make a great companion for his companion. Especially back when he thought possibly K9 might have been able to be brought back out of decommission, but alas it had been forgotten about. Now he had an opportunity to give this new model that name instead, because he highly doubted that he'd ever get the female finished.

The Doctor had considered Juno or Buddy, especially after he did a bit of research while building the dog. However, he wasn't sure how he felt about using those decommissioned names. In the end he had decided against it and just had gone for A.C.E. instead. Once he was completely done with A.C.E. or Ace however one wanted to really look at it, he took a step back to survey his work. As he took his typical one arm crossed over his chest the other rested on top of that one with a hand place firmly under his chin with an index finger on his lips while he was deep in thought stance, he was realizing that something was still missing from this model, but what?

Looking around the room he finally was able to make the connection. It had no collar! K9 had a collar. One that was obviously reminiscent of his fourth incarnation, but still it was a collar. All dogs needed one of those. Quickly he managed up something, one that would help with some added functions that were already a part of the dog's insides. Once he had put it on he had took a step back again and looked the model up and down.

"There, tha' should do it." he stated warmly, satisfied with his work. Before him was a creature that nearly resembled a real dog! It had four legs with toes even, a versatile tail, a sleek body, and a more dog related recognizable head. Honestly it had a bit of an almost greyhound build to it if one were to think about it, that or a smaller Great Dane. It was Scooby Doo, but smaller. It was now time to try him out.

"Let's see if you function as well as you look my friend." The Doctor stated as brought out a device that could turn him on. It could also do other commands, even from a distance to whomever owned Ace. Pressing the pad of the thing, he waited for the dog to come to life.

Suddenly bright blue eyes flared to life, its shield lids raising up and down in a flutter as if the dog really were waking up for the first time. Once it was done blinking it just stood there staring at The Doctor unsure what to make of the old man, its artificial brain processing the new information. When it determined what it needed to it began to wag its new tail with happiness. Its basic dog code was working, this was good The Doctor thought to himself. He tried getting the machine to follow his movements, which worked as well. Ace followed him from left to right, and watched his hand go from up to down.

"Good. How 'bout we see if you can speak now." The Doctor commanded and then pressed another button. "Speak."

The dog actually barked instead of saying actual words. Well that could come in handy when in public. The biggest question was, could it understand the difference between human speech and dog speech. The Doctor probably wouldn't ever know unless tested in an environment. However, he could verbally manual override the speech selection just to see if it would work.

"Change language, set to human." he commanded. "Speak."

"Owner recognized. Hello....Doctor." Ace stated tilting his head to the side, his tail still wagging a bit.

"Nicely done, and hello to you too Ace." he grinned. "You my friend are going to make someone I have onboard very happy."

"Ace? Is that my name?" Ace question.

"Yes, yes it is." The Doctor stated.

"Archived, I am now Ace." the dog stated showing a sign of happiness. "I am a good boy."

"Hahaha, yes tha' you are." The Doctor mused with a laugh. "We need to do a few more tests and then we are going to play a game."

"Okay." Ace stated.

This model was already able to talk much better than K9 was, but it too was limited still at this point. Only time would be able to give it vocabulary distinction. The Doctor did do more tests with Ace, and each one proved fruitful. When he was done with that, he finally stood back in front of Ace.

"Now we are going to play that game I was telling you about." he stated as he held the command key.

"Okay, Ace already likes Doctor, Ace will play." the dog obliged. It showed a sense of what was feeling, that was fascinating and fantastic all at once! He wasn't sure how real the emotion was, but on a computerized decision level it was able to make a choice like that. The Doctor had outdone himself and it had even surprised him. Was he really already that fond of these two guests he harbored? He really had changed since his early days.

"Okay we are going to play the sleep game. You are going to go to sleep, and when I say wake up, you will wake up like when I first brought you to life. Do you understand?" The Doctor stated.

Ace tilted his head, trying to gather through his processors the information he needed to get to complete the task. Eventually he was able to look The Doctor in the eye again and say, "Affirmative."

Oh by the universe he still had some of K9 in him! This just made The Doctors hearts melt with love.

"Excellent." he smiled. "We'll do this a couple of times so I can see how you understand."

"Okay." Ace said wagging his tail again.

"Sleep." The Doctor commanded verbally. Ace's eyes closed and he stood there like a motionless statue. He was still on the rack unable to get off it yet at least not until The Doctor released him. On a monitor nearby, he watched the robots vitals. It was impressive, the dog was still at a subconscious level still running, its artificial beautiful little heart still pumping and its processor brain activity still was going on at a minimal rest mode level.

"Brilliant!" he mused to himself excitedly like a child. "Okay, wake up Ace."

The dog immediately came out of rest mode and blinked at Doctor, "Did I do good?"

"Very good." The Doctor pointed out. "Let's do it again shall we?"

"Okay." Ace wagged.

"Sleep." The Doctor commanded and the dog went back into sleep mode as fast as it had come out of it. This game as The Doctor called it went on for a few good times, before he was satisfied with it. Before he woke Ace up for the last time with that game, he undid the dog from the restraints and put the beast on the floor to see what it would do with mobility. He then turned it back on and waited to see if it would take in its new environment.

"Ace no longer restrained." he noted actually letting his head swivel from side to side. The dog then caught sight of his tail and wagged it at himself, actually tempted to chase it, but instead looked at The Doctor for a command.

"Yes it's time to see if you can move about. Come." The Doctor commanded. Ace was trying to process movement. Unfortunately he didn't move right away. This made The Doctor concerned. Had he missed something? He tried the command of come again. Still nothing. The Doctor rubbed his face and did a once about turn around wondering what he could do to get him to understand.

"Like this." The Doctor stated finally, showing him by taking a step forward with one foot slowly and then the other. Ace merely tilted his head at The Doctor in curiosity. This honestly made The Doctor wonder if the dog actually was having trouble with the command, or if the dog was starting to get slight personality and be cheeky. "Come on Ace, work with me here."

He finally did the last thing he could think of to get the dog to actually come to him He got down on the dogs level and coax him to come. Maybe it was a bit scary to try and move. Was that even possible yet with Ace? It was time to find out. The Doctor felt a bit ridiculous bend down to the dogs level, but did it anyway, arms outstretched to welcome the new canine into his life.

"Come on Ace, you can do it. Come." The Doctor called more than commanded. "It's okay, I'm here. I won't let you fall. I promise. Come on."

Ace stood there for a good few long moments before he actually lifted one leg and put it out more in front of himself, pressing the multi jointed paw down on the metal floor with a small clink. There were pads on the feet to keep the legs from getting too jarred, just like that of a real dog, so it wasn't as bad a clinking as it could have been. Ace then did another paw, and then another. The dog wobbled a bit and The Doctor was about ready to grab the robot, but it righted itself immediately though after.

"Tha's it." The Doctor encouraged. "One at a time you can do it."

Ace continued to move forward, actually pressing his ears back against his head and lowering his tail with a bit of what could only be expressed as anxiety. Eventually his steps became faster and faster until he finally reached The Doctor who began to pet him like he was a real dog.

"Good boy, good job Ace. You did it." The Doctor praised, which only made the dog actually wag his tail and begin to whine with happiness.

"I good boy, Ace good boy. Ace happy." the dog stated and then began to use his artificial tongue to try and lick The Doctors face.

"Okay, okay, yes, yes you're a good boy. Settle." The Doctor tried to calm the dog down. "Now that you can move, I'd like you to meet someone special."

"Okay." Ace stated looking at his supposed owner as he stood back up straight and then walked over to K9.

"Meet your dad, K9." The Doctor stated putting a hand on K9's head.

"What is a dad?" Ace asked not sure what that reference meant.

"Parent of." The Doctor stated, this allowed Ace to process the idea.

"Predecessor!" Ace confirmed in understanding.

"Exactly, he...is your predecessor." The Doctor agreed.

"Is he asleep?" Ace questioned out of curiosity noticing that K9 wasn't speaking or moving.

"Yes." The Doctor stated. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't quite the truth either. K9 probably was not going to come out of storage for a while. "But you are going to be functioning in his stead."

Ace tried to process this. When he did he wagged his tail, "Okay."

"Which means, you are going to take a nap until I am ready for us to play again." The Doctor stated walking back over to Ace. "Sleep"

Ace went immediately back into sleep mode again. He petted the dogs head before putting a sheet over him to hide him for now, just in case. He then pocketed the command key with a chain on it. Now that the energy of the moment was over, reality came back to him, and hit him like the Orient Express. He was still hungry. The macaroon he took did nothing, in fact, it had been burned away nearly fifteen minutes into his project, which meant he still needed something more than just one lousy macaroon.

He actually checked the time. Realizing how late it was, it made him feel tired just a bit. He hadn't actually napped yet either. So that settled it, he needed coffee. A good cup of coffee and maybe some sort of sweet pastry. Wasn't there a coffee shop nearby? If he remembered correctly there was. Wouldn't be the same exact direction of travel, but he was certain he could find it and be able to be back in time before the others woke. The Doctor made it his mission to get back to the control room as quickly as possible, look up where the coffee shop was, and go retrieve it before it got too late and come back with it still warm. He had a feeling by the hour it was, the two would be up fairly soon, at least within the next hour maybe two, especially considering that Serena went to school usually.

The moment he got to the control room he quickly brought the map of the city up on the screen, took in the travel directions, and then made his way to the door. Opening it, he took in the cool morning air. The sun was already rising, which left a faded blue hue in the sky. The wind was even blowing a bit, brushing up against his silvered hair. It also seemed to make something on his door flap dramatically a bit. Turning to look to his right, he found a paper note attached to his other door.

This made him frown. What was that all about? He snatched the pink colored awful heavily perfume smelling paper off his TARDIS door and flipped it back and for over in his hand with a cringe faced expression before he read the really disgustingly terrible writing that was scribbled on it.

"Don' people know how to write?" he grumped as he scanned the message. On it was chicken scratched, _Would you please remove your blue box from our parking spot. Otherwise we'll call for a tow._

"Wait, what!?" The Doctor sputtered a bit and walk out and around the TARDIS to look at the spots number, which was actually 22. Weren't they supposed to be correlated with the homes? Usually they were. Well that was the way he was going to see it in any case. He looked back at the message and saw who it was from. Scribbled at the end of the note was, _Sincerely your neighbor #23, Marilyn Vanderos._

"Well Marilyn, sorry to say your case is invalid." He crumpled up the paper, threw it over his shoulder, and walked back to the door of the TARDIS. "In fact...."

He walked back into the TARDIS, went to one of his side nooks, grabbed out a long paper with a sticky on one end and began to write something back. "You're invalid."

At the end when he stated that, he ripped the paper off and went out the door with it. His eyes searched the area for number twenty three. Eventually his eyes caught it as a first floor home. Figured, first floored and egotistically privileged. Why did that not surprise The Doctor any. Rude that some obtuse woman thought it be okay to take advantage of some poor visually impaired person like that, all because they couldn't drive, and he was sure the woman knew it and just assumed the spot was available. It was Serena's spot as far as The Doctor was concerned.

Briskly he walked over to the door and placed the note firmly on its surface, purposefully at eye level. He wanted the woman to see it. On it was wrote, _Dear Mrs. Vanderos, I'm sorry your life is a miserable one. Perhaps you should rethink it. However, I must sadly inform you that the blue box you speak of will not be moving any time soon. Perhaps a down size will help your disposition in the future. Also shame on you for taking advantage of the disabled. It's not very kind. Hence forth, if I see any vehicle other than my blue box or any other transport that is not relative to the residence of #22 I shall be forced to have your vehicle removed from existence permanently. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a nice day. Sincerely, The Doctor. P.S. Also I hope you can read, the box clearly stated Police Box on it meaning it is an emergency vehicle, hope that helps any. :)_

Yes the smiley he put at the end was on purpose. Was the note a bit cheeky, sure as hell was. Honestly how dare anyone try and ruin his morning with a cocky note like that on his door. Simply rude, he'll tell anyone. No one had a right to be a crabby jerk, but him. He sharply turned away with a smirk and as he walked away, brushed off his hands as if to say "the deed is done". Now he could go off and get his and the others coffee's in peace.


	11. Into the Deep

Deep in the TARDIS, the two guests of The Doctor eventually stirred some many hours later from their slumbers. Serena was first to wake, since Ash had spent time running off to explore the TARDIS more and find food. She had woke with a start, not realizing her surroundings at first. She even bonked her head on the bed above because she forgot she was in a bunk. She at least forgot why she woke though, which had been another bad dream.

"Ow!" she hissed out and rubbed her head a bit, tears temporarily streaming from her eyes. When it subsided, she got up out of bed. She also realized then that she had left her contacts in the night before, and ended up blinking roughly to get them wetted a bit again. She must have been more tired than she had anticipated.

Hearing snoring from the bunk above, Serena gave a small smile before going to her bag to get stuff so she could tidy up. The last thing she wanted to do was look like a hooligan or cave lady who just rolled onto the scene. Yet as she did get her stuff, she mused to herself about how Ash could sleep through an apocalypse she swore. Looking around the room she found the bathroom that was attached nicely to their room. It was big that was for certain, more than what she really needed, but she took it anyway. A blue set of towels of varying sizes hung, which matched well with the even lighter blue walls and white frames around the door and med cabinet. Even the tub, sink, and toilet were white, but the counter was a marbled grey splash.

She had decided at that moment to just go all out and let the rough sleep she had, had wash away. By the time she had finished her routine and came back out, Ash had finally gotten up himself, looking about as much like the walking dead as she had when she first got up.

"Hey hedgehog." she poked, running a towel through her hair.

"Meh." Was all he could get out.

"Partied too hard last night?" Serena teased a bit more, trying to get a bigger reaction.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ash smirked a bit.

"With that tone probably not." Serena laughed.

"Nah, I just had a hard time getting to sleep. Not even the food could coma me down into the darkness of my mind." he quirked. "When I finally did get to sleep though, I did crash."

"More like, you brought stuff you weren't supposed to and used it to crash." Serena stated.

"Eh, fine you caught me." he shrugged not denying it.

"What am I going to do with you?"

"Love me, feed me, never leave me?"

"Oh go get cleaned up!" she threw the blue towel over his head, luckily making the shot.

"Hey!" he chuckled and pulled it off his head, making his already stick up hair stick up worse. "Fine, I'll go. Where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"The door to Narnia?" he snorted. "The bathroom duh?"

"Oh! Right sorry, across the room from the bunks. If you just keep going forward you'll find the steam still coming from the room." she blushed a bit.

"Steamah." he teased and began the trek forward. "Yay. If I fall in and die I'm coming back to haunt you, you know that right?"

"Oh shut up." she snickered. "And go take a shower, you smell like the backside of a bantha."

"How would you know what a bantha's backside smelled like? What did you do, find one somewhere somehow?"

"No!"

"The how would you know?"

"I just, because, well....oh just go!" she huffed all flustered and threw a pillow his direction, but missed. Instead Ash ran into the bathrooms doorframe while laughing at her lack of ability to throw.

"I meant to do that." he called back, a bit of an embarrassed voice coming out, but still not completely detoured from what he was doing. He did get in eventually and close the door, leaving Serena to finish getting ready out in the bedroom.

Ash came back out not long after though, finally being presentable himself.

"You know, before I went in, I forgot to ask if you were okay." he said with genuine concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she stated, even though she really wasn't.

"You don't sound it."

"Just another bad dream that's all."

"About?"

"Jordan, those aliens, whatever they are." she tucked a bit of hair behind her ear out of anxiousness.

"Ah." was all Ash could think of to say at the moment.

"Being here, it just makes it more real." she said solemnly.

"Hey, it'll be alright." Ash said coming over and putting hands on her shoulders, rubbed them a bit, and then wrapped his arms around her from behind and hugged her. "Now that your boyfriends here-omph!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" she jabbed him with an elbow.

"Okay, okay, idol is here. Things should be better, right?" he chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, I hope so." Serena stated leaning into her brother. "Because those dreams, their terrible."

"I can believe it." Ash agreed and gave her a tighter hug before letting her go. "We should go find your friend, The Doctor. See what he wants to do now about this situation."

"Yeah we should." she nodded, then held an arm out for him to take. "Shall we."

"We shall." Ash stated taking her arm after having grabbed his cane in the other. "We're off to see the wizard the wonderful wizard of oz."

Serena chuckled at him as he sang that once they started towards the door and went out it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually The Doctor returned some half hour or more on his end with coffee and pastries from the shop. Luckily, there was no more messages left on his door. If there had been, he probably would have used his sonic on them to burn them into a paper crisp. He used his key in the lock and opened the door, his hands full as he came in.

The other two still hadn't arrived back into the control room. At least he knew they had been at minimum possibly exploring and at max still sleeping, needing the rest. He walked up to the control console and looked at the screens to see if anything might have come up, but nothing. That was okay he supposed. Carefully he turned and put the drinks and food on a surface that was flat as possible as safely as he could, and then went back to the controls. He was going to try and refine the search for the aliens he'd found signals for the last couple nights. They were being clever and not popping up like daisies.

Well since they were being obnoxious and not showing, he decided to start calculating to see if he could find the energy that was left over from his decent from the rift that brought him there. Honestly that was easier to find traces of then the aliens he was hunting down. It was actually crazy, the area, desolate as it was, was teaming with rift energies much like ones that could be claimed to be found in Cardiff. How that could have been possible, he didn't know. It was practically a temporal nexus.

Instead of running north to south though, it seemed to be running a bit east to west in direction. The energy fascinated him and made him wonder how far it actually reached, if it was just mostly within the city alone, across the state, or even farther. Rifts like these were like cracks in the universe so to say. Either through natural or purposeful temporal distortion means. Which one it was in this case, he couldn't tell.

It was while he was engrossed into this information and calculating, that the others finally came in both laughing as they entered. This made The Doctor look up at them. Something about the laughing was infectious and made him smirk a little himself. He was relieved to see them in better spirits.

"Oi, what has the two of you gigglin' like a pair of school children?" he inquired as he came around the console a bit to look at both of them better.

"Nothing." Serena said, a smile actually on her face.

"Doesn' sound like nothin'." The Doctor said raising a brow.

"Ash was just making his usual wise cracks about things." she said with a light shrug. "Nothing really big. Just stupid stuff I'm sure that would only make your eyes roll."

"More like you don't want to be embarrassed by your boyfriend." Ash teased and swiftly pulled away from Serena before she could jab him again.

"Shut.....up...." she turned laser worthy shooting eyes at him and then turned to The Doctor. "If you really want to know, we passed by the library and pool on our way back and Ash had to just go and start by making a crack about the blind man going to Texas."

"Because everything's big in Texas!" Ash blurted out. The Doctor only raised a brow in confusion.

"It's a blind joke. Like I said, eye roll worthy stuff." Serena giggled a bit, her cheeks just slightly red.

"Sooooo, what's up Doc?" Ash pipped in. He just had to go and make a loony tunes reference.

"Well nothin' of relevance if that's what you're askin'." He stated going back to the console. "At least not for the main point of the situation. Found the rift, well at least traces of it anyway that I must have come through."

"Oh." Ash said shifting his weight a bit.

"But," The Doctor continued and went over to the drinks. "I did get food and coffee."

He held out the case of drinks out to them, "I remembered what you two ordered the last time we met. So I hope you don' mind."

"No, not at all." Serena stated grabbing the one she could tell was hers and then grabbing Ashes. "Thanks."

"Yeah thanks dude." Ash said gratefully and took his and began to drink it heavily before smacking his lips in enjoyment. "Now that hits the spot."

"Wait, I thought you didn't carry cash or anything? That's what you said the other night?" Serena quirked a brow at The Doctor.

"Well...," he began. "Normally I don', but in rare occasions I take a chance and make myself have some on hand. I took a gamble tha' the money here would be the same as in my universe. Besides after such a rough night, I thought everybody could use some."

"You're a saint." Ash stated and took another long sip.

"Glad I could oblige." The Doctor shrugged a bit and tossed the left over container that held the drinks into a receptacle that the TARDIS would empty on her own time.

"Makes sense." she stated also taking the pastries The Doctor had gotten and gave one to her brother. "Here have a chocolate pastry, it's got sprinkles on it."

"Ooo sprinkles!" Ash cried out with joy, a part of him thinking he too was falling in love with this elder Scottish man who was a fictional character. "Okay I like him, can we keep him?"

"I suppose....." she mused with a small giggle, unsure how The Doctor felt about Ash's claimage of his Time Lord self as property. God's that be, she sure hoped he didn't decide to do what he did as a child and lick him to claim him, it was going to be bad enough if he decided to be weird and do that with the donut. She looked at The Doctor with a "I'm so sorry my brothers a passable weirdo" stare, "It's his thing. It means he likes you."

"Good to know." The Doctor gave a short chuckle and then took a long sip of his own coffee and bite of food. That helped his mind just a bit already.

"So." Serena stated after taking a bite of her own pastry that had crème in the middle.

"So?" he raised a brow.

"I'm a bit confused still." she said tilting her head.

"About what?" The Doctor asked.

"Well now that I have had a chance to think about things a bit. What has me confused, is how you as you are, have gone from point A Mr. sexy being tenth tall spiky haired regeneration to point B good looking bowtie wearing swooshie haired raggedy man to C you, being here, as this? A Sean Connery worthy competitor. How does it go from point A to point B to point C? I don't understand. I know it's some wibbley wobbley mess, but still that, that just doesn't compute what so ever. Cause the last thing I remember from a show watching perspective was the deal with the one planet that had the space fish that was reminiscent of Treasure Planet of all things. That was a good episode story. The ending was mixed feelings though, sad and happy at the same time. I suppose really like the original Christmas Carol story."

"Ah, well....a thing happened." The Doctor stated, then went blank faced a moment. "Does it really matter though?"

"Yeah it kinda does, at least to me." Serena stated, hoping to urge an answer out of him. "I don't remember your face being one of the incarnations."

"What if I told you... spoilers....and tha' I can' give you answers?" he returned cheekily, mostly because he really didn't have answers. It actually was one of the things that bothered him a bit, but at the same time didn't because he didn't remember even what it was he was missing.

"I don't believe you." Serena stared hard at him, nearly wanted to flail.

"Well as you said, my life's a show here. Maybe you just haven't reached that chapter yet." The Doctor gave.

"He's got you there Ser." Ash commented.

"You're not helping." Serena moaned.

"Never said I had to." Ash retorted and took a drink of coffee.

"Seriously though Doctor." she pleaded. "What happened?"

"You want honesty?" he stated with a slight frown, but she nodded. "I don' know. It's....all a bit fuzzy you see. Everythin' past Manhattan and the angels. Now that I think about it, some things even before that. I'm sorry. I really can' give you anythin'."

The Doctor actually looked down at his cup of coffee, his gaze seeming actually a bit dejected. Whatever had happened to him, it had to have been huge. Serena felt bad now for pushing it. She should have just been grateful he was alive past possibly his eleventh regeneration. She at least knew that before anyone else. Setting her pastry and drink down carefully, she went over to The Doctor and put a hand on his aged face.

Touching his skin again, just made it solidify worse that this was all real to her, and it was only going to get more real. Yet at the same time, it made her feel even sadder knowing that fact that he really had lost so much, yet gained so much as well. The emotions ran off him like water, and it didn't dawn on her that perhaps she was empathetically feeling that weight of emotions from him.

"Look, I'm sorry." she stated. "I shouldn't have pried."

The Doctor let his eyes flutter shut for a moment in tired respite to her touch. Something about it made him want to relax a bit, even though the situation they were going to face should have kept him as tense as a board. He took a free hand and raised it to touch hers.

"It's alright. You wouldn' have known. I don' even know." he admitted. _And I'm actually scared by that._

"Still, it's your life. I'd have been upset too if it had been me in your position. I just, got too excited I guess a bit by the idea of you. This face I've never seen. Not that it's a bad face or anything. It's just, not something expected. It's still you." she stated with a small smile trying to make things better. "I mean, I'd say it's in the eyes, but I can't see those really."

"Such a shame," The Doctor gave a tiny smirk of his own.

"But I can hear it. In the voice." she stated. "Now that I'm not running around like chicken with its head lopped off and what not, I can hear it. Sure there's a different accent, maybe even a different mannerism or slight personality variation, but the core is still there. That stuff, that makes you, well you."

The Doctor gave a better smile that time, "Thank you. I don't know why, but....that really does help."

"You know, I could just ..." Ash gesture to the corridor doorway.

"No, its fine." The Doctor shook his head.

"Really Ash." Serena huffed.

"What? You two just sounded, ya knowww...." Ash continued.

"Finish that sentence and I'll show you what the meaning of a girls scorn really constitutes." Serena stated strongly.

The Doctor chuckled a little at that. That reminded him of Amy just a bit. It was sad to think about, but somehow not as badly as it could have.

"You two better finish up." he stated lowering Serena's hand from his face and holding it momentarily before giving it a squeeze and letting it go. "I got somethin' to share with both of you."

"What about the aliens?" Ash inquired.

"Well righ' now they don' seem to be sharin' their whereabouts." he mused. "Besides, I think sharin' this migh' just be as important as findin' those aliens. In fact, that gives me a really great idea. Thank you Ash, you can make some good points."

"I try." Ash shrugged and finished off his donut. "So what is it you want to share?"

"Oh you'll jus' have to see." he actually smirked and grabbed his coffee and pastry to finish it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime later the group found themselves down in the TARDIS storage hold where the K9's were kept. Surprisingly, The Doctor was actually excited to share this project he worked all night on that he had even babbled on a bit about the TARDIS and her structure as they walked down there. Going into detail about how he had all the necessary rooms out front usually and all the rest were all in a sort of either back room venue or were put away as storage themselves if they weren't really in use. Any room for the most part if it was stored, could be retrieved if needed, otherwise it would just stay put away.

This certainly fascinated both Ash and Serena, but what The Doctor had to offer in the storage hold actually would top that, at least for the moment anyway.

"Now, I'm not sure how well this will work out down the line, but for now, I though' this had been a good idea." The Doctor started. "I worked all night on it. So I hope it'll excite you as much as it did me."

Ash and Serena stood together, Ash holding onto Serena still just in case of need for guiding. Both were ready to see what it was The Doctor was so intent on sharing.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be amazing." Serena said warmly.

The Doctor smiled and then flipped over the cloth off of A.C.E. It was of course not as hard for Serena to see as it was Ash, so naturally she tried so hard to hold back a bit of a squee when she saw what it was. She couldn't see its finite details but what she could see, made her feel like a little girl all over again. Before she could speak though The Doctor put a finger to his lips to keep her from making a sound. He then grabbed out the key command and pressed the pad on it.

"Ace, wake up." The Doctor commanded. The dog flared to life, his blue eyes staring out at them.

"Hello Doctor." Ace stated wagging his tail at him.

"Hello Ace." he responded.

"Did I win the game?" Ace asked remembering what they had last been doing.

"Yes you did." The Doctor stated and then looked at the others. "It's alrigh', he's safe."

"He talks!" Serena breathed.

"What is that?" Ash asked not quite getting it.

"This is Ace. Or A.C.E. if you prefer, Artificial Canine Explorer." The Doctor beamed. "He's a robotic dog."

"Whoa." Ash answered with shock.

"Who are they?" Ace asked tilting his head.

"Ace this is Ash and Serena. They are my compa-...friends." The Doctor stated coming short of saying companions, because honestly he wasn't sure if they really were that or not. Did it count? He'd figure it out later.

"Friends? Ace likes friend's right?" Ace asked.

"Correct." The Doctor nodded.

"Archived, Ash and Serena are friends of Doctor and Ace." Ace stated.

"Go ahead you can touch him." The Doctor encourage them both. "See and feel for yourselves."

Serena helped Ash forward to the dog robot, that way he could touch it. The moment Ash's hand touched the robots outer layer, he actually shivered a bit. Ace didn't move though, he just stood there and let Ash touch him.

"It's amazing." Ash stated in awe.

"He." The Doctor corrected. "The robot's actually got an identifying gender."

"That's brilliant." Serena smirked.

"Sorry, he is amazing." Ash laughed a bit. "Yes you are, aren't you?"

Ace looked at The Doctor for understanding. The older man nodded in approval towards the dog.

"Affirmative, Ace is Amazing." Ace confirmed.

"Who'd of thought?" Serena shook her head and actually touched Ace as well, trying to understand what the dog felt like herself.

"I though' maybe he could help you." The Doctor stated. "I'm not completely familiarized with service animals, but I've seen a few in my time here and there. I can even make sure he's a registered legal usable companion. After all he'd probably be the most well behaved dog imaginable. Even more so than a biological version. Not to say a regular fluff ball isn't smart, but Ace here can do so much more than the average dog. Hence where your good idea comes in."

"What's that?" Ash asked.

"Finding our alien friends. Dogs, both biological and technical both have great sniffing receptors. I think we could find where they are located and root them out before they cause much more trouble." he offered to the two of them. "That way the two of you can help me. If you still really want."

"Of course." Serena said warmly. "Though I am surprised you want us to."

"Why?" The Doctor was confused.

"Well we're not exactly, able bodied." she said looking down. "Like most of your other companions."

"What has that got to do with anything?" The Doctor inquired further, raising one of his bushy brows.

"What she means is she doesn't think we'd be able to keep up, because we have vision loss." Ash bluntly stated.

"Your companions can keep up in running and doing things, we'd get more in the way probably." Serena sadly had to agree with Ash.

"Bullock's! That's utter nonsense, rubbish!" The Doctor waved off. "When the going gets tough-"

"The tough get going?" Ash said trying to be a bit cheeky.

"Well there's tha', or as I'd put it, find a way around it." The Doctor said pointedly. "There's always a way, all you have to do is keep fightin' to find that way."

"So you don't think we'd be a burden." Serena said looked towards The Doctor, her eyes looking a bit hopeful but still sort of anxious and sad.

"No, of course not." The Doctor gestured to her and Ash then gestured at A.C.E. "I wouldn't have spent all night working on Ace if I thought that. People like you....your one in a million. I've met people like you before, and each time, brilliant! Dazzling even! Why would I throw such an opportunity away? Besides, I don't turn my back like that on people. Not when they need my help. Not ever."

Serena nearly wanted to cry just about then. She wasn't sure if it was from just the sheer speech he gave or the fact that she could really feel the honesty come off of him. Things like that were so much harder to tell with the shows persona of his other regenerations. Here though, it was different. He was more real, more true to The Doctor in that moment alone that it made her genuinely believe it all. She actually ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him, not quite realizing that this regeneration was not quite the hugger the other ones had been.

"Thank you." she said in his ear. He felt himself actually relaxing. Why was he actually okay with is now? At least at this moment. Because almost as if he had no control of his body, his arms wrapped around her in return, his eyes actually closing. Was this actually therapeutic in the moment somehow?

"Gotta say Doc, this is stellar!" Ash mused. "I can't believe you did all this. Just for us. How dare you make me get all manmotional. I don't need to be all sappy."

The Doctor actually gave a quirked smile, and put his chin on Serena's head as he still held her. He could pretty much lightly feel her emotions coming off her. It was trust, genuine trust, something he'd been missing for a while it seemed.

"So what do you say Ace, want to play a new game?" The Doctor said over to the dog. Ace looked over at him and wagged his tail.

"Game? Play sleep?" Ace inquired.

"No." he said turning Serena around while leaving one arm around her shoulder. "We're going to learn to play hide and seek."

"Hide and Seek." Ace tilted his head.

"Yes, and..." he let go of Serena and stepped forward towards Ash. "Your new companion is going to show you how to play."

The Doctor grabbed Ash's hand, took the key command, and placed it in the younger man's hand. He then pressed Ash's thumb onto the pad. "Ace, new command, recognize Ash as new master, admin 1. File backup, The Doctor as Admin 3."

Ace computed this for a moment. As he did the key command took a sample of Ash, which made him yelp out, "What was that for!"

"I'm makin' you the primary owner." The Doctor stated. "This is so he will listen to you. He will still listen to me as a subroutine, but as a first priority he will help you first over me. Serena, give me your hand now."

Serena gave over her hand. The Doctor placed the key command in her hand and pressed her finger on the pad next. The Doctor continued, "Ace continue command, file backup, Serena Admin 2. End commands. This will allow you to be in charge if Ash is incapacitated. Your priority will also be above mine."

Serena gave a nod at The Doctor. Ace finished his processing eventually.

"Ace is ready." Ace stated, tail wagging. Instead of letting his gaze fall on The Doctor, he let it stay on Ash who was now in command of him.

"He's yours to command now." The Doctor stated. "I'm sure you know how to play hide and seek."

"Yeah of course, Serena and I used to play it all the time." Ash said fondly.

"Great, you two can show Ace how to play." The Doctor offered.

"What about you?" Serena asked.

"Me, nah, not my thing." The Doctor laughed a bit.

"I think you should. The more people playing, the more he has to learn right?" Ash added.

"True." The Doctor couldn't disagree.

"Then you can join us." Serena stated firmly.

"Ahhh, very well." The Doctor brooded a little and then shifted his weight from the leaning position on a crate he'd found. "You'll want to let Ace smell each of us first."

"Okay." Ash said and then held out his hand to Ace who began to sniff it. Serena did the same and so did The Doctor last.

"I'm sure you know what to do from here." The Doctor mused.

"Ummm." Ash swallowed and looked at Ace. "Ace close your eyes and count to thirty. Then open them and search for us. Use our scents to find us."

"Understood. Closing eyes and counting." Ace stated and began to count.

"Okay, hide!" Ash said, he would need Serena's help though. At least they could try and find a place inside the storage to do so at least this time. The moment the three of them were all hidden, Ace opened his eyes at the end of his count and went searching for them. It didn't take long before he found them either.

"Good job!" Ash laughed the moment Ace found him. The dog actually showed the motions of a real dog by rubbing up against Ash.

"Again?" Ace inquired.

"We can, if the others are up for it." Ash said more questioningly than stating.

"Sure, but maybe expand the field a bit. Give a bit more of the TARDIS so he has to try harder." The Doctor encouraged.

"Alright." Ash agreed. "Ace I want you to count for ten minutes with your eyes closed and then come look for us."

"Alright. Ready?" Ace asked.

"Ready, start countdown." Ash commanded and then waited for Serena to lead him out of the room. The Doctor followed out. Ash and Serena went one way, while The Doctor went another. The Doctor of course made it back to the control room. It was fine enough to be in the open for him. The other two were well on their way towards their quarters.

"I'll take you to the bedroom okay?" Serena stated.

"Sounds good to me, I can hide on the bunk that way." Ash agreed.

"I'm going to go see if I can find the library or something afterwards." Serena offered.

"Sounds good. Guess I'll see you when it's over." Ash said.

"Yeah." she gave a nod.

Eventually they reached the bedroom. Ash went inside and on his own tried to locate the bunk while Serena carefully ran down the corridor a bit to see if she could find another room. She didn't find the library, but she did find something just as pretty. She found a garden instead. It looked like something out of the Secret Garden and it made her happy.

"Brilliant." she said to herself with a smile and ventured into the flora.


	12. Facing Fears

Eventually Ace was able to stop counting. The robotic beast looked around himself before taking a careful couple steps forward to see if he could hear or see the others. Sadly he did not. They had left storage. This left Ace with no choice but to go out into the unknown parts of the TARDIS to begin to explore it. Sniffing the air, he began to make his way down the corridor, following the blended trail of the others.

Eventually the scents tapered off from each other. One going one direction, the other two going the same direction another way. Well that was a tough decision. He could go look for the single scent, or he could go look for the muddle scents. The single scent was easier to track, so he decided to follow it. Eventually Ace found the control room. The Doctor’s slip away tactic wasn’t as hopeful or clever as the time lord had expected. 

“Doctor has been located.” Ace wagged his tail.

“That I have.” he mused. “Why don’t you go on and find the others now. I’m sure Ash is waiting for you somewhere.”

Ace continued to wag his tail and then ran off down back into the corridor. This left The Doctor to sigh. He’d gone back to trying to find their little friends with little to no luck which frustrated the ever living daylights out of him. He rubbed the side of his face with his left hand, his ring standing out against the stark contrast of the background behind him.

Meanwhile Ace continued to look for the other two. The dog actually had to re find their scents, which now had become faded a bit. He was able to latch onto Ash’s though fairly quickly. The cologne he wore was strong enough for Ace to get registered as being Ash. Carefully he made his way to where he eventually ended up at the door of Ash and Serena’s room. Walking forward, he stepped inside, the doors sliding open easily for him.

Ash had put himself on Serena’s bed, covered by blankets. He’d tried to lay himself as flat as possible and not breathe too heavily. It really was a task and a half. He could hear Ace though moving about the room trying to sniff him out. It took everything in Ash not to start laughing. Of course he could have hid on the top bunk or under the bunks, but he didn’t want to make it too hard on poor Ace this time around. The robotic dog was only just starting to get use to its functions. 

Ash almost wanted to reflex and cover his mouth to stop himself from starting to breathe heavily because of trying to stop his laughter, but he resisted the temptation. However, on the other hand the blankets began to raise and lower a bit near Ash’s face as he tried holding in the laughter that was starting to hurt his chest. 

“Where is master?” Ace inquired to himself. The little dog was talking to himself! Oh gods that was making it so much harder not to bust out laughing. Damn that dog! It didn’t help that finally a loud sound began to echo near his ear, being Ace’s nose poking and sniffing at the blankets. The dog’s tail began to wag rapidly.

“I found Ash! I located master!” Ace stated before the mechanical beast began to use its mouth to pulled down the covers and then shove his dog like face into Ash’s like any normal dog would born of flesh and blood. Ash died, he couldn’t do it anymore, and he burst out laughing and screaming from Ace’s playful attacks to his face.

“Okay, okay! You found me! You found me! You win!” Ash chuckled as he tried to cover his face with his arms.

“Ash more expressive than Doctor. Why?” Ace asked actually tilting his head.

Ash looked between his arms that were still covering his head, “Because, I’m happy you derpy dog!”

“Is that a good thing?” Ace asked, trying to process this.

“Yes! Of course it is!” Ash brought down his guard, sat up a bit and grabbed the robotic dogs face. “You’re a silly mutt.”

“Silly? What does that mean?” Ace didn’t get it.

“It means funny, happy.” Ash stated. “Did you find the others?”

“Only Doctor.” Ace stated. “No Serena.”

“Well I guess we better go find her shouldn’t we.” he stated and got up off the bed, petting Ace’s head as he grabbed his cane. 

“Affirmative.” Ace said wagging his tail more.

The two of them went together, Ace staying close to Ash. Ash actually felt Ace bump against him from time to time as they walked along the corridors. He even pushed against him when Ace thought they should go a specific direction.

“Smell her?” Ash asked.

“Yes.” Ace stated and kept sniffing.

“Wonder where she decided to hide.” Ash mused to himself. It wasn’t like he was in any hurry really, but he was curious anyway.

“Unknown.” Ace stated.

“I wasn’t….oh never mind. Don’t worry about it.” Ash said with a small chuckle. Eventually they would find her. She couldn’t hide forever. Or could she? Was that possible? Could the TARDIS make her vanish? Would it make her just to be a brat? Ash hoped not, that would be embarrassing and frustrating for both him and Ace. Plus then he’d have to find The Doctor just to see if he’d be able to retriever her. Hopefully he and Ace would succeed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serena had found the little garden to be amazing. Well it wasn’t quite as little as she had hoped, but it was still pretty. There were all sorts of plants. Luckily none at this point and time that would eat her, but there were some that were larger than her standing wise. Actual flowers and mushroom’s that could easily protect her from rain like a tree. It amused her because it was like seeing something straight out of wonderland really.

The smells were almost overpowering in some cases. Yet there was a high amount of oxygen in there as well. It even seemed like it was sunny out, which she knew couldn’t be because well they were on a ship of sorts, so she was certain that it had to be an artificial form of lighting that could mimic the sun. These plants all had to have a similar genus or something in order to live under the same conditions. Did that mean he had more than one room worth of plants maybe? 

Eventually she came out into a place where it looked a bit like a park inside this garden of wonder. There were actual lush bumps of grass and something that looked a bit like a pond with ducks. It was beautiful, and a part of her just wanted to stay right there even if she was found. It was almost convincing her that she shouldn’t have to go back out and face those stupid aliens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally Ash and Ace got to the door of the Garden Atrium. Both stepped inside and were assaulted by the smells of flowers.

“Of course.” Ash covered his face for a moment to get used to the scent levels. “She had to go find the most fru fru smelling room in the whole place.”

Ace tried sniffing out her scent, but was having a hard time distinguishing it from the flowers around them. It made the dog do a spin around before he finally made the executive decision to go a direction.

“You think you’ll find her in here Ace?” Ash stated wrinkling his nose a bit as he walked with the dog.

“Unknown. Chances reduced…fifty percent.” Ace stated sounding a bit more solemn in the hopes of finding her.

“Guess we can enjoy the roses along the way I suppose.” Ash stated listening to his surroundings.

There were actual sounds of birds and of bees! There were bees! In a starship of all things! Now Ash definitely was starting to see a bigger picture. It felt like Earth though to some degree. There was warmth from above, the smell of the air though heavily laced with the scents of flowers was heavily fresh. Probably the only real thing that gave away the fact that the room was artificial. The air was too clean. It did begin to make Ash relax though all the same.

Both even found the plants that Serena had. Ash couldn’t quite see them like Serena had been able to, but he could gauge them by the way he was seeing things, and even to him he could tell they were still tall. 

“Who knew The Doctor kept such things.” Ash mused with a chuckle about the tall mushrooms. 

“Scent found! Searching!” Ace called out more excitedly and nearly forgot Ash was with him before he made a turn around to help him along the path to where she was. It still took time, but they finally found her in the park like area. “I found Serena! Now what?”

“Good job, we’re all found. Go ahead and explore.” Ash stated and walked towards Serena to see what she was up to. “Whatcha doing in here?”

“Enjoying the scenery.” she mused softly, now sitting in the grass just watching the pond ripple.

“Yeah, it’s pretty neat. Can’t believe this exists, though I shouldn’t be surprised considering what we’ve seen so far.” Ash stated and went to sit down next to her. Ace went to go snoop about the park while they talked.

“I don’t want to leave.” she said looking down at the grass, letting a few strands twirl in her hands.

“What do you mean?” Ash asked tilting his head at her in concern.

“I mean, I feel safe. In here. In the garden, in the TARDIS.” she stated. “The more I see the more I don’t want to leave.”

“I know. But Serena eventually we gotta.” Ash stated with a frown.

“I’m scared. I don’t want to go out there, mess things up for The Doctor, for others, for you.” she stated still not looking up. “I don’t want to fail because I can’t see them. What if they take me by surprise? Or what if they try hurting you or The Doctor and I don’t notice. I don’t want that sort of thing on my conscience.”

“Hey, I get that.” Ash stated pulling her over into a hug. “I’m scared. But I believe in this because I believe in you.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Why not?” he stated back. “You’re my sister, that’s really a stupid question.”

“It doesn’t change how I feel though.” she sighed.

“No, but maybe it can help change what you do about it right?” Ash squeezed her a bit. “To be honest, all of this is crazy right now. This space time machine, The Doctor, robo dog over there, this garden, all of it. It’s all just madness. But hey I’m willing to roll with it. Because of you.”

“Thanks.” Serena leaned against her brother as she stared at the pond still.

“Of course.” Ash said leaning his head on top of hers. “I’m your brother, I’m supposed to be that annoying thorn in your side that doesn’t go away that easily.”

“Shut up.” she smirked and shoved his side slightly, but then leaned back against it. “The Doctor did a pretty decent job making that dog. He seems so realistic, in a robot sort of way.”

“Yeah, he really didn’t have to go to all that trouble.” Ash said turning a bit red.

“I think he did it because he wanted to, it’s his thing.” Serena stated. “Comes from watching his life, you kind of know these sorts of things.”

“Hmm.” Ash mused the thought. “We should probably go meet back up with him though. I think we’ve stalled this whole ordeal for the poor Doctor long enough.”

“Yeah your right.” she nodded, but stayed put still. “Just a few more minutes though.”

“Fine. Just a few.” he gave in. “Then we need to go face the inevitable, we promised after all we would. Wouldn’t want to let him down now. We got this, as long as we got each other kay.”

“Kay.” Serena said with a small smile and watched as Ace tried to figure out what a duck was and watched as the dog chanced it along the ponds edge, smirking to herself with a shake of head at the robots curiosity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime later the two had managed their way back up to the control room, with Ace actually in tow. The Doctor looked up from the console at them, “Ah I see things went well.”

“Yeah, they did.” Ash stated putting a hand on Ace’s head.

“Good, now that means we can get onto phase two of things.” The Doctor stated enthusiastically.

“And that would be?” Serena asked.

“Findin’ our little unwelcome guests.” he remarked unamused.

“That’s Doctor for, we’re going to use Ace to track them down isn’t it?” Serena state more than asked.

“Righ’! Which means…” his voice trailed a moment as he wandered around the console and picked something up. “I had to have the TARDIS help me calibrate it, but it should fit onto Ace just nicely. Who knew service animals could be so complicated.”

He handed Ash the harness that would attach to Aces body firmly. When Ash couldn’t figure out how to put it on, The Doctor went over and helped show him.

“Look okay, you have to put it over like this, now clasp these in.” he waited for the sound of the harness to click. “There see, simple. You’ll get used to it.”

“Thanks.” Ash stated looking down a bit. “Honestly you really didn’t have to.”

“Shut up, yes I did, and even if I didn’ I still would have anyway. I don’ understand or know much about blindness, but I’m starting to learn a lot from the two of you. And I think…you are more capable than you grant yourself to be.”

The Doctor put a hand on Ash’s shoulder, “After all you’re the one who could hear two hearts and can see the time energy that leaks a bit into the TARDIS. Not everyone can say that. So why not see what else you can do. That goes for you to Serena, I see that look on your face and I don’ buy it for one minute you’re not thinkin’ about being useless too. I wasn’ born yesterday.”

Serena shifted a bit uncomfortably about him tagging her like that. He was good, damn good. Almost to the point of unnerving how good he was. The Doctor turned away from Ash and Serena and went over to grab the device he had a few days back. 

“Righ’, now let’s go see if we can do some findin’ shall we? We don’t have much more time to spare, more lives are in danger and we’ve wasted enough sittin’ around here.” he stated turning to the doors then looking back at them. “Well, you comin’ or not? Look, if there is any trouble you two can’ handle I’ll try and make sure your out of harm’s way. In the meantime, time’s a tickin’ and we are short on wiggle room to find them.”

Ash and Serena both looked at each other and prepared to followed him out of the TARDIS.

“Okay Ace lets go.” Ash tried to take a step or two forward but the dog didn’t move. Something was wrong. “Ace?”

The Doctor took another look back and then face palmed, “Ohhhh righ’! I forgot! Now, as I said before, I had no idea how complex service animals were, and so I had to look up the commands for that while I had built him. Now granted they haven’ been tested yet. But no time better than then the now eh. Simple commands. Um hold on I wrote these ones down.”

The Doctor sifted through his pockets, “Ah here they are! Let’s see….forward means go, halt means stop, left or right with directional turn equates to literal turn. Find insert thing here such as door equates to find that thing. Though I think seek will still work in this case too. Um…”

He looked to see if there were any other notable commands, “Righ’ ah come means exactly what it states, if you lose hold of the dog you can command them to come. Of course normal commands like sit, stay, stand, and lay down are also part of the commands. I think that’s about it for the ones I had to look up. The other commands that are a part of guide mode are you can ask him what’s surrounding you, give estimates of path in feet or inches in front of you, and tell you landmarks, etc. things of that nature.”

“Oh okay.” Ash stated feeling a bit embarrassed.

“You ready then?” The Doctor asked, not trying to seem impatient.

“Yeah I think so.” Ash stated and looked towards Ace. “Ace forward.”

It was a clunky sort of start, but once they were able to move, all three finally stepped out with Ash in the rear sort of clumsily still trying to figure out how to walk with Ace, his steps out of the TARDIS a bit wobbly. Eventually, The Doctor locked the TARDIS behind him. Ace immediately turned into what looked like a real dog on the outside as they walked down the street. It was still hard for the two of them to keep up pace, but it wasn’t as bad as if Ash had his cane on hand. As soon as they got a few blocks away from the TARDIS, The Doctor stopped and turned to Ash.

“Alrigh’, here’s where the tricky yet brilliant part comes. You and Ace are going to have to lead the way.” The Doctor informed. “Serena and I will follow right behind.”

“Okay, so what do I do?” Ash asked unsure of himself.

“Ask Ace to do what we did with the hide and seek.” The Doctor stated.

“Makes sense.” Ash replied then looked at Ace. “Ace we’re going to play game.”

“Okay.” Ace acknowledged.

“We are going to play hide and seek, sort of.” Ash continued. “But this time you are going to seek out something unfamiliar. So more like we are going to play a game of tracking, it’s like hide and seek but with the found being an unknown element.”

“Ace understands.” Ace confirmed.

“Serena, Ace is going to need to see if he can get a trackin’ scent off you or at least some sort of signature.” The Doctor stated.

“Alright, but I’m not wearing the same clothes and I’ve washed since.” Serena said looking baffled.

“Doesn’ matter, alien energies may or may not still linger.” The Doctor offered.

“Okay.” Serena agreed with a nodded and went over to Ace who began to sniff at her in understanding.

“Trace particles found, alien life detected.” Ace stated.

“Yes, good.” The Doctor stated and put a hand on Ash’s shoulder as a way to encourage him to continue.

“Ace I command you to seek.” Ash stated and waited for Ace to respond in some way.

“Seeking.” Ace stated and began sniffing the air but not moving. 

“Let’s go.” The Doctor stated. “I’ll keep a close eye Ash don’ worry. I won’ let anythin’ happen to you.”

“Alright.” Ash took a deep nervous breath and began again. “Ace forward.”

They began to walk again, this time Ace tracking the smell.

“What if we run into people?” Serena asked The Doctor as she fell in line behind Ash with him.

“Simple, Ace will default to protocol and use a telepathic link with Ash.” The Doctor stated. “That way he blends in with his surroundings. It also means that he’ll also understand every language, even if he’s not in the vicinity of the TARDIS anymore either though too, somethin’ I forgot to factor a bit. Oh well.”

“Amazing.” Serena said shaking her head.

“I know.” The Doctor said feeling a bit proud of himself.

“No doubt about your ego.” Serena said with a small smirk and nudged The Doctor a bit, whom had gone to looking at his little device. Why he wasn’t using his sonic to do readings she didn’t know. There probably had to be some reason.

“Shush.” he scoffed a bit back, a genuine smirk crossing his lips a bit. Who’d have thought he’d be working so close with folks with disabilities. This was a new one for him. Not that he hadn’t ever run into folks like that before, but this was different. They, like him, were going to be right in the middle of the action. Did that scare him just a bit? Yes, yes it did, but he wasn’t going to let that fear get to him. He couldn’t because if he did he’d be going back on his word and in a way, a promise.

For some time it seemed, they walked with little to no leeway. It seemed Ace had something, but it was so faint most of the time, they seemed to only be zigzagging back and forth all over the city to find them. They even had gotten down to central, where they’d been most lurking about. Why down there though? What was so great about the old part of the city?

“Somehow this doesn’ surprise me.” The Doctor mused, his lips furrowing a bit into a frown.

“Why is that?” Ash asked.

“Because, this is where I found the random attack I came across, and where I found your sister as well. Something about this area has given our visitors reason to congregate in this location. Yet what?” he mused, looking about their surroundings. “There’s nothin’ really substantial about the area.”

“Well they are old buildings. Most if not all on the central strip are on the registry.” Serena stated. “Perhaps it’s because it’s a less active area of interest for people.”

“Oh I doubt that.” The Doctor mused and pressed his lips together in thought. “Cause if that was the case, then there wouldn’ be problems like what happen with you. They need people for whatever reason. Be it survival, food, disguise, etc.”

“Right.” Serena nodded in understanding.

“Um, I know this might come off as sounding a bit dumb, but I used to hear theories and rumors that there once had been an underground route under the city and that the only reasons it’s said that it doesn’t exist is to keep folks from traveling it because of how dangerous it could be and that there is also rumor that it once connected to the base underground. But, that’s only speculation. I know, I know, it sounds stupid right?” Ash stated putting his hands up in self-defense of getting a verbal onslaught.

The Doctor stood there for a few moments in though, glanced down at his reader device, then at Ash sharply, “No, not at all! Actually, that’s probably one of the most sensible things you’ve said all day.”

“Seriously!?” Serena gapped at The Doctors agreement with Ash.

“Yes.” The Doctor stated plainly.

“But it’s just a rumor, as he said.” Serena argued.

“And where do you think rumors come from, hmm?” he stated confidently, then looked around once more. “Which means, if your brother is right, there would be at least one or more entrances to this underground.”

Ash gave a confident smirk, “Yeah my friends and I used to try and find these tunnels so we could throw parties and get wasted while I was still in school.”

“And if there isn’t?” Serena questioned, not listening to her brother.

“Then we’ll just have to rethink things.” The Doctor shrugged. “I am highly confident though that Ash is right.”

“So where should we begin then?” Serena asked.

“Well we can start at one end of the strip and work our way back to the farthest end on one side and then back down the other side if we have to.” Ash offered.

“That could work.” The Doctor said. “Ace would pick up whatever he felt was a strong enough scent to warrant a look see.”

“We’ll just have to make sure it’s an open business.” Serena added. “I am not breaking in somewhere just to find a creepy creature attached to a scent.”

“Who said anythin’ about breakin’ in?” The Doctor gave a small smirk of mischievousness as he reached into a pocket and pulled out his sonic before waggling it a bit and then stowing it away again. “Only will have to borrow a place for a few. No one will know the wiser.”

Ash gave a short chuckle at the thought, finding it amusing. Of course he would, he was notorious for mischievous acts himself. Serena on the other hand just shook her head at them both.

“Fine, but if we get caught…” she gave a scrutinizing look.

“Right, well if we get caught, we’ll just have to make nice with the police.” The Doctor stated.

“One problem.” Serena said crossing her arms.

“What’s that.” The Doctor stated looking down at her.

“We’re not in your universe, remember.” she said giving a worried wry smile.

“Ah, right, yeah tha’ could pose a problem.” he murmured to himself then tried to go back to a more energetic composure, “Guess we best hope Ace finds us an open business then shant we.” 

He began to make the motion for them to keep moving. Ace and Ash fell into step with Serena shaking her head again and catching up to them. As they moved along, Ace kept sniffing every which way trying to find a really strong scent of the creatures. Many of the businesses were duds. Some seemed to have a scent, but not a strong enough one. It wasn’t until they reached one particular open store that they got a break. A big sign shared that it was a dice and games shop. Ace had calculated that this place had been the best bet for activity.

“Oh snap.” Serena stated. “This might be harder than thought.”

“Why is that?’ The Doctor didn’t understand.

“Have you ever read Lord of the Rings?” Serena asked.

“Yes, why? What does that have to do with our situation?” The Doctor asked.

“Because one can’t simply walk into Mordor.” she said with a sigh. She could feel The Doctor’s confusion. “Meaning, it’s going to be busy as hell in there. And even if it has a basement area, with potentially tunnels attached, it doesn’t mean we’ll get to be able to go down there. It might be storage only for the business.”

“Hmm.” The Doctor pondered.

“No harm in finding out though right?” Ash asked.

“Let me think…” Serena closed her eyes in thought as she paced a bit herself while they stood out there.

“What store is it Ser?” Ash asked.

“A game store. You know…dice, cards, board strategy, etc. That sort of stuff.” Serena gave.

“Well then why don’t we just D&D this mother up and dungeon our way in.” Ash offered.

Serena stopped pacing and looked at her brother dumbfounded, “Wait, you know about Dungeon’s and Dragons, but you didn’t have a clue about Doctor Who?!”

“Seriously you’re going to hold that above me?” Ash shrugged. “So I might have played a bit here and there or two while doing-“

“Okay fine I get it.” Serena waving him off not wanting to hear the rest of the story.

“Yeah, anyway so I may have played a thief bard.” he mused.

“How were you even able to play?” The Doctor asked curiously. “Isn’t that some sort of visual game?”

“Yeah it is, but I had someone doing most of the written legwork for me.” he stated. “Didn’t get far, but eh that’s alright I guess.”

“So, what you’re saying though, is we treat this like we were in some campaign?” The Doctor inquired. “I’ve never really paid attention to such games.”

“Yeah exactly. Well in a sense. What we’d do is go in like we’re a team. Basically tell them were a group of roleplayers looking for a spot to campaign that’s quiet. And if we have to, use a quote unquote charm spell on them to see if we can get access to the basement. If they have one of course. It’ll be no different than getting into a dungeon. Then once where down in the basement we make our moves to find the quote unquote dungeon entrance. Perhaps The Doctor here could do some magic on the area and reveal any surroundings. Then wah la we are golden to dungeon…I mean travel the tunnels.”

“If I wasn’t a nerd, I don’t think I would have gotten half of what you were implying.” Serena snorted. “I’m going to so give you hell from now out until the end of time about the fact you just nerded out on us.”

“Shuddup.” Ash stated turning a bit red.

“I guess now that we have a plan we really should get to it, time waits for no one, not even The Doctor. Especially when goin’ the long way round.” he urged them.

“Yeah right. So I guess that makes Serena the warrior, you the mage, and me …the thief.” Ash smirked.

“Of course.” Serena scoffed. “And why can’t I be the mage?”

“Because he’s got that special little wand doohickey.” Ash retorted.

“It’s a sonic screwdriver.” The Doctor corrected.

“What he said.” Serena agreed.

“Whatever. Wand of plot convenience.” Ash rolled his blank gazing eyes. “He’s got it which makes him the mage.”

“Fine.” Serena huffed then walked to the door. “Let’s go.”

“Just so you know, I don’ believe in magic.” The Doctor stated leaning over to Ash.

“Eh.” Ash shrugged. “It’s just a metaphor anyway. Magic, science, all the same to me. Confusing.”

They both followed Serena into the shop, where they would either come up empty handed or they would face their doom in the tunnels of the city. They were about to find out if the legends of the tunnels were true or not, their destinies now resting in the hands of fate.


End file.
